Tears in Heaven
by Solaris Moon
Summary: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she’s on the run from heaven. An angeldemon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so? AU
1. Part I: Somewhere I belong

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: It's been ages since I've posted here, much less a YYH fic! Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit, yanno, Language, Violence, OOC. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters.

Blood type: Cherry Blossom (Lipton Green Tea) and ramen. The staple of every college student's diet.

Comments: Read the damn story.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part one: Somewhere I Belong  
--  
"See you Monday!" 

"Ja ne!"

"Dinner at that new café tonight, we still on?"

Kurama walked past the other students just getting out of class at the University in Tokyo, calling out a fair few of these goodbyes himself. He was in his senior year at the university, and at 25 had a real life ahead of him. He didn't really consider it as such, only foreseeing getting to his apartment and making dinner, the same as he did every Friday night.

He was fated to be wrong, though.  
--  
As he turned down the nearly-deserted side street, a small figure ran smack into him. As he caught his balance, he instinctively grabbed the small wrist to detain the figure. Long waves of auburn hair swept across a pale face, eyes such a dark brown that he at first thought them black staring widely in fright. At first he missed the ears proudly sticking up from the hair, a red-orange sign of something…

The tiny vixen struggled to escape, pale gray tunic revealing long legs as she pulled to get away. The long shirt only reached her mid-thigh, and was torn and stained in several places. Her tail beat a furious drum at her legs as she pulled and cried.

"Let me you, you damned ningen! Release me!"

"Whoa… calm down. What's wrong?"

"Calm down? They're going to KILL me if they find me, and you tell me to CALM DOWN?! That's a novel notion! Sure, as soon as they fucking decapitate me, I'll calm down! After all, I'll only have my death ahead of me!" she shrieked in fury. It got her to stop struggling so much, and he noticed small bloody prints on the concrete ahead of him. He looked down to see her ankles raw and bloody, and a quick inspection of her wrists showed the same. Someone had not been kind to this kitsune, as he now recognized her as being. With little thought, he put his backpack on her back, picked her up, and piggy-backed her.

"Hold on to my shoulders, and don't scream. I'm getting you out of this mess. Just… explain this to me when we're safe." He said, and upon feeling more than seeing a small 'hn' of agreement, he took off running. Something about this girl had just given her full rights to change his routine, and even he didn't understand it fully. Finally, breathless, they reached his apartment. As he rested, she looked around, still scared.

"You don't have to wear my backpack anymore, you know." Kurama told her, and she shrugged off the bag. "So… can you explain this to me now? Or did I just fall prey to a prank?" The girl was in his face in seconds, furious.

"This is no prank! It is a matter of life and death to me!" With that outburst she flopped onto the floor and sighed. "But I did promise. And I'm not going to break that promise. The reason they're after me is… I'm on the run from Heaven."

"… Right. And I'm Queen Elizabeth."

"I'm not lying, ningen! I really am! Look… I'm on the run because someone opened a door that shouldn't have been opened. A freaking fury was unleashed on Heaven. And they can't contain her. So I'm being blamed. Figures." She said, scoffing resentfully. "They won't blame one of their precious angels, so the little demon gets fucking blamed. Ignore that daddy dearest is the angel of death." She rolled her eyes.

"Wouldn't that make you half angel?" he asked.

"You would think, ningen, but no, one convenient little fact that your beautiful texts ignore is that death is demonic. Heard of Shinigami? That's as close to the truth as it gets. So if I have any angel in me, it's so far buried that it's just more convenient to bill me as demon. And I won't argue with them. If dad's an angel I'd rather be a demon."

"Oh. But… why are you running?" Kurama asked, and the vixen sighed.

"Are you dense? I just told you. A fury… more accurately a demon of incredible power that threatened Heaven, so frightening that if captured they're locked up and billed as furies… was released from her container, and I get the blame, even though I wasn't anywhere near the damn door at the time. They just see the fact that I am the bastard child of death from an affair with a demoness and want to blame me. I can't even explain myself, they want to kill me and use my body as fucking bait to get the fury back into her cage. And I won't go peacefully. So I ran here, thinking either it'd be safer or I could go to hell and the fucking bigots wouldn't get me. Plus… I got family there. My mom and a twin sister. Dad just chose to keep me because they'd have a fit if he brought home a little kit with flame-red hair instead of the darker-haired little tame one that I was. Wanted to train me as a Shinigami. I proved he could hardly do that. So now even dad's given up on me. I'll bet he even ordered me killed. That son of a bitch…" she growled, showing sharp fangs in a grimace. Kurama was stunned.

"So… they want to blame you for the escape of something horrible, and this gives them the excuse to kill you? Well…"

"Yeah. Guess you noticed the burn marks, huh? I thought they were going to let me tell them what happened, and only figured it out when they tied me up and got out the swords. I'm lucky I didn't get worse." She said flippantly. "One thing can be said for me, if nothing else: I've got a hell of a survival instinct. If I didn't get a few feathers out of their wings at least, then I'll be shocked. I actually rather hope I ripped one of 'em's wings off."

"Stay here, I'll get the first aid kit." He said, and got the small box. "Say… can I ask you your name?"

"Solaris Sarue Moon. I chose it myself, actually. Dad wanted me named some stupid airy thing, as light as sunbeams and undoubtedly pleasing to his superiors. I ditched that as soon as I could talk."

"Sarue?" Kurama asked; he wasn't familiar with that… or anyone having a middle name.

"In my mother's language, it means 'bringer of flames'. Well, even if I didn't really do it, I think that proves it. And believe me, that's about as peaceful as it gets in hell. If you bring the flames, you're a calmer demon than most. And it's the only thing my mother gave me before she turned me over to my father. 'If nothing else, call her Sarue'. But in Heaven, it means 'fate be with ye' and no one liked that. So dad ignored that, except to tell me my mother was a fool and sacrilegious. Of course, he hated admitting he had to screw her for me to come about, and I would always torment him with the fact that he was being a hypocrite." Those pearly white teeth were bared in a sharp grin, and Kurama could just tell that this girl was going to be trouble, and he didn't care. "And can I ask your name, or do you want me to keep calling you ningen?"

"It's Kurama. Minamino Shuiichi if you want to call me what my mother named me. Kurama if you want honesty." He sighed, knowing this would take some explaining, but just as he opened his mouth, she held up a hand.

"Youko Kurama is a textbook staple, don't worry about explaining. Your trick is documented so that other demons aren't allowed the same option of escape to a human body. Dad wanted to go after you when you were a teen. Tried several times. But, as can obviously be seen, dad is a fool to think that you could be taken down so easily." Solaris laughed softly, then winced. "Careful with the rope burns…"

"Sorry." He said calmly, and wrapped them in soft gauze. In no time, she was back on her feet, inspecting the bandages. With no words she got to her feet, and tried a few steps, then started humming a soft, ethereal song… 'Time's Scar' would have been as close as it got, but Kurama didn't really think she was humming that… she stepped softly, as if she were a teenager in a madrigal impersonating a formal dance. Her hand hovered in the air, as she turned, knees bending slightly in a soft curtsey, and then the humming took on a new sound, and the dance sped up. Her voice sprang from her throat in a single syllable, the notes hit perfectly and the dance faster and more tribal if anything. As it slowed, she turned slower, and when it sped back up, she added more movement to it, testing her motion. It ended abruptly when she fell to the floor, laughing.

"Too much at once!" she smiled. "Sorry, had to see how well I could move. On my feet, yanno? And I think I can handle this much. I can't do that last move but I don't care."

"It was… nice."

"You should have heard the instrumental instead of the vocal. It wasn't so good translated to vocal, but it sufficed." Solaris shrugged from her position on the floor. As her tunic pulled a little with the motion, a tear in the gray fabric widened to show a slightly scratched side, and a little more… he turned and left the room, confusing the vixen. When he returned, it was with a pair of old shorts and a shirt with the characters from Cowboy Bebop on it.

"You look about the same size as my brother, and he left these clothes here when he last visited, so… here you go." He pointed over towards his door. "You can change in there." She inspected the clothing for a minute, then looked at the tunic, and nodded.

"Do you possibly have a knife? If I change my hair too, maybe they won't recognize me." She suggested. Kurama looked mildly shocked.

"It's not just for disguise! That tunic is torn to shreds. And why would you want to cut your hair? If you just pull it back they won't recognize you."

"Oh. Point to you." Solaris nodded, and left the room, only returning when she was in the shirt and shorts. "Hey, what should I do with this thing?"

"Trash." He said, pointing to the burnables. She merely threw it and smiled when it landed right where it was supposed to. Upon closer inspection, she looked to be the same size in shorts as his brother, but the shirt was a little tighter than he thought it would be. This would have to be remedied quickly. As soon as he thought that, he started laughing, mildly freaking the vixen out.

"Dude, are you all right or did I get saved by a lunatic?" she asked.

"No, it's nothing. I just thought of how you changed my day and it amused me for a minute. See, I have this routine, and you broke it, and I don't mind." He smiled. She flopped down on the couch by him, black-brown eyes shining up toward him.

"Then that just shows how much you needed to change your routine. See? I think that's what happened with the Fury. Some little angel got bored and decided to start more trouble than they could handle. And guess who got the blame because she's vocal about being bored?" she laughed.

"It's really that boring?" he asked.

"Oh, hell, you have no idea! Let's see, you always wake up early because the sun rises so much earlier… hell, it barely even sets before it's rising again. So, you can't sleep, and you get breakfast of honey and bread every day. No variety, no change, no outside food, no exceptions. After that you can either try to go back to sleep or you can do whatever your job is, but with me, dad had me shuffling papers and handling his little mistakes with the higher ups… which were few and far between, but man were they fuck-ups! You know the Napoleon dude? Exiled fucking TWICE?" she asked. When he nodded, she continued. "Yeah, well, that guy was supposed to die the first time. Dad missed that notice. And that Rasputin guy? Well, he wasn't really supposed to survive that first assassination attempt… or the second. That was not a good time for dad. Gave me no end of laughs… until I got the fucking paperwork. After work, more honey and bread for dinner, and games. Always last picked for everything. Even dodgeball, and my team always won, because I may not have had great aim, but if I threw that ball I could generally bounce it off something and hit someone. And I was always last on the field, 'cause I could dodge like hell."

"I imagine you get good at that after a while…" Kurama said quietly. To his surprise, she laughed.

"Yep! When you got kids asking you why you have funky ears and you tell 'em, you gotta learn to fight or dodge fists and rocks fast. After the first time I fought, I just stuck to dodging. Dad didn't like me roughing up the precious little brats, yanno? Said I was being pissy, that he separated me from mom and sis so I would have a better life, and I was trying to ruin it by being difficult. And none of the brats cared that I'm the kid of fucking death. But, yeah, I usually spent my time reading, usually what dad could get me from people who died. After the ninth romance novel, I just gave up and got my own damn books between paperwork. When he found that out, he rescinded my library privileges and started getting me insipid little morality things. Gag me with a pitchfork." She said, and pantomimed the action. "After I threatened to gouge out my eyes with a spork, he gave up and gave me my card back."

"Would you have?" Kurama asked. She cut him a look.

"Honey and bread. No earth privileges. How the hell could I have even found a spork? But dad didn't think of that. Lucky for me." She sighed. "Hell, I think I just sealed my fucking fate and got myself kicked out for good. Even if I were found innocent, I left heaven without permission, and you obviously found me. So I've messed with the damned order. Nope, no more early mornings and bland meals for Sol-Sol! Can't honestly say I'm too disappointed about that."

"Huh? So you can't go home?"

"Never really regarded it as home. After all, is home a place where you're constantly pissed off, and ready to slit your own wrists if only for variety? Nah. Not so much."

"Well… where are you going to go?" he asked.

"Beats me." Solaris said. "Probably gonna go sleep on a park bench or something."

"No way," Kurama declared. "I'm not turning you loose to sleep on a park bench. They jail you for that, yanno. And what about food? Just… stay here." Solaris cut him a look.

"I'm not particularly useful. I don't like cleaning, I wasn't allowed to cook, I read entirely too much, and I don't do the wishes thing. Remember, I'm not an angel, really. About all I'm good for is navigating around paperwork and policies and shit. So why would you keep me here?"

"Because I didn't realize that I was bored as hell until you ran into me. And… well… you're pretty interesting. So if you just stay here and help a little where you can, it'll all be worth it." When he said this, Solaris laughed, a musical bell of a note, and patted his shoulder.

"You have a convincing argument! All right, I'll stay! But, uh… can I borrow different clothes if I go out of the house? No offense to your brother, but I don't think I could handle walking around in pajamas."

"Deal. So long as you don't mind oversized clothes." The two laughed easily, and that settled the matter.  
--  
"Is she gone?" a shadowed figure asked of an angel dressed all in white. The angel nodded his head, blond tresses obscuring his face. The figure stepped from the shadows, smiling. This was a tall woman, dressed all in black, with wings dark as pitch and as wide across as a minivan… each wing. They were leathery, bat wings from the appearance, and she smiled with fangs. Her eyes were an unnatural shade of red, and her skin shone like she was on fire. The fury laughed evilly, which wasn't too hard considering she was the epitome of evil. "Good. If you hadn't have gotten rid of her, that little half-angel would have figured out what was going on. Where did you dump the body?"

"We couldn't kill her. She figured out what we were trying to do, gnawed through the ropes, and ran." The angel was hoisted into the air by the collar of his robes. The fury was not pleased.

"WHAT?! Shouldn't you have had guards on her?! She's part demon, after all!"

"We did, but she kicked one in the gut and knocked the wind out of him, and the other got her claws to his face. By the time we figured out that she wasn't the one screaming, she'd gotten the ropes undone and ran the second we opened the door." The fury threw him down and he got to his feet, fixing himself back up. He sighed, "We should have seen it coming. She ran laps around the other angels, without even using her wings, and had them down before she was even sweating."

"This is going to be a bit of a setback…" the fury mused, biting her thumbnail. "Where did she go?"

"Earth."

"Ah. She won't be too much of an issue for a while then. Do you know how much she understood of her father's administration?"

"He had her doing paperwork. I can't really ascertain how well she was educated with his system. But I can find out within the day."

"Do that. And see if you can find where on earth she is. I'm going to need her in this… And are you sure you convinced Shiroi of her guilt?"

"He didn't take much convincing, for being her father. After all, she was the only one who was vocal about being 'bored', and even said she was 'ready to release a fury if it meant the stuffy old farts would lighten up and do something besides say no all day' once." The angel had the good grace to blush. "She had the worst vocabulary… I blame it on her demon heritage."

"And yet that is exactly what I need. A little Gray… So few born now… And after this, you will be my second in command. Now… leave me. I need to think of how to turn this screw-up into an advantage." The angel bowed and left, and the fury touched the window softly, the glass bubbling outwards from the heat her body radiated. She grimaced; she wouldn't be able to go near the vixen until the heat from her imprisonment had subsided. As it was she was surprised the angel hadn't fried to a crisp. She removed her hand from the window and smiled into the sunset, darkened by the flames created by her body, the flames that spread her chaos throughout heaven and would help her cause, of getting the little vixen back to her.

"Solaris Sarue Moon… you cursed child, come to me… I alone will love you… I alone will shelter you… and I alone will be your confidant. And when I have your trust, and you've told me the secret of your wings… I'll rip them from your body and thrust you on to the heavens. And when you regain what little sense you have, you will be mine… My little Gray to use as I will. And heaven will be mine at last." Her laughter rang up to the stars, lost in the shouts of angels trying to restore some semblance of order to heaven.  
--  
**TBC  
**--

Hope that was an ominous enough beginning for you. Next chapter…

"_The wing marks on her shoulders were…"_

"_Soft feet pattered around the house and he wondered why she was running…"_

"_A feather rested on the pillow, but where Solaris had been before, she was gone…"_

Also, Sarue has no real meaning, so any meanings of her middle name will be pure fabrication. I got it from my little brother's contrived spelling of Solaris. Don't ask me how he got Sarue.


	2. Part II: Hit the Floor

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters.

Comments: This chapter is a lot of explaination and moving the plot along. It should interest you to know that I'm working on the final chapter at the time of this upload. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part two: Hit The Floor

* * *

Soft feet pattered around the house, and Kurama wondered why she was running. Solaris had met his mother the previous day, and a few of Shiori's old clothes from when she was a teen fit the girl. She hadn't asked about the tail and ears, thinking them a cute accessory, and merely giving the girl the clothes without asking about the tail and ears. That night, Solaris had adjusted the skirts and jeans to have a hole for her tail to move freely. So what was she running around for?

"Solaris? What's with you?" he yawned and asked. She looked up, and smiled.

"Breakfast! You have class today, right?" Kurama snapped awake at that, and looked at the clock.

"Oh, great! I'm going to be late! This isn't good!" he cried, taking the toast from her hand and hardly seeing her stuff a bento in his backpack. "Thanks, Solaris! I'll get you a copy of the key today! Meantime, the spare's in the pot with the mini rose! See you this afternoon!" he called, and ran out the door. Solaris sighed laughingly, then walked over to the mirror and uncovered it. Silently, she unbuttoned the shirt and slid it down her shoulders, then moved the camisole straps off her shoulders to inspect them. Sure enough, the wing marks on her shoulders looked more defined. There were definitely feather-like patterns on them now. This was confusing.

Solaris was half-demon, half-angel by definition, since her father was more angel than demon. Half-angels-half-demons were called two different things technically: hanten if their father was an angel, hanyou if their father was a demon. And then you had the token slur: Gray, from the pure white of angels and the deep black of the demons. Over time, it seemed that the 'han'-rule had been forgotten and Gray became the token name for half-angels-half-demons. Grays were few and far between, with good reason: few angels were allowed into the depths of hell, and few demons were allowed to rise to heaven. Ergo, only high-ranking officials could possibly find themselves parenting a Gray. This was how Solaris's father and mother had come to be the parents of not one, but two Grays. Old law dictated nothing on this- there had never been two Grays out of one birth before!- so Solaris's father had just chosen his most angelic looking daughter to take home with him as a possible Shinigami and companion when he had to take extended trips to earth, such as in times of severe wars. And in Heaven, Solaris had been subjected to slurs and abuse by other angels who didn't care that her father was death. And that was about where her similarities to other Grays ended.

Whereas most Grays had wings the color of soot, darker skin from their demonic heritage, and pale hair from their angel parent, Solaris was moon-pale, dark haired, and had no wings but the tiny black marks on her shoulders. And now those wings were gaining definition. In all her readings, she hadn't encountered anything about that… though she hadn't encountered much about Grays either. It was as if it was a dirty secret that Heaven wanted to keep under wraps. With a sigh, she pushed the straps back up and righted the shirt.

"Well, he didn't tell me to stay inside all the time, and I could just braid my hair and hide my ears with a cap if I have to. Besides, I need to get dinner." And with that, she picked up the money he had left her, got the spare key, and left, smiling and humming a heavenly tune, inadvertently leading someone's gaze to her…

--

"Found you, my love…" the fury hummed to the tune the girl sang. "No one ever told you the other meaning to your name, love, did they?" she laughed as she crossed a leg and used the receding thermal waves from her body to turn the page in a file on the vixen, smiling as the heat crinkled the page. "Of the sun, conflicted fate. Odd how your father wouldn't even tell you the meanings of your own name. But it doesn't matter." With that, the fury tried to pull an old trick, not even sure if she could anymore. But it worked, and she smiled. "And with this, I lay the trap that will catch my Gray…"

--

Solaris was taking the way through the park, humming the tune Kurama thought sounded like 'Time's Scar'. Unknown to him, it actually was, but he wasn't going to know that if Solaris had her way. As she carried the bag in the forest, thinking to take a shortcut, she heard instruments playing her song, and smiled, rushing deeper into the trees to set the bag down and start dancing on half-healed feet. With no ningen watching, she could dance like she was meant to, which involved floating on the air for some of the more intense parts of the music. The complicated aerial spins, the steps taken lightly so she could rise further and heavier so she could sink to the ground were all performed to perfection, with no idea that someone was watching her. The loose skirt floated on the pillows of air around her, and she sang with the music, overjoyed at hearing her song again. This time, her song wasn't just one long syllable, it was a rich song, in a strange dialect. As she sank to the ground one last time, a voice spoke to her.

_-Lovely…-_

"What?! Who's there?!" Solaris cried, looking around in shock. Laughter rang out through the trees.

_-You like to dance and sing, don't you? And you're obviously very good at it… why are you willing to waste away here? Ningen don't have as beautiful music…-_

"Tch. Like hell I'm going back. They wanna fucking kill me, and I ain't that stupid. My mama didn't give birth to no fool." She said, and picked up the bag, scowling. "Crazy trees… like hell I take this short cut again… I mean, I knew the forest had voices, but I didn't think they were this fucked-up…"

_-Wait.-_ And Solaris stopped, inexplicably. Something about this voice plead to her reason, and she couldn't help but stop and listen. _–You want to dance to that kind of music again, don't you? You want to sing your old songs, don't you?-_

"…Yeah." Solaris nodded. She hadn't wanted to admit it, but she couldn't sing her songs around a ningen. That would cheapen them somehow, in her mind.

_-Then come back here when you want to sing… just call for Azura, and I will answer you… you can talk to me about anything, anything that comes to your mind, love… I'll listen to your songs, your triumphs, and your defeats. And in return, I will play for you, so you can dance.-_

"How can I trust you? Dad said never trust talking trees." Solaris said, realizing that a) she sounded retarded, and b) she was off her rocker. _Well, better to be a crazy retard than a sane loser…_ she reasoned. _After all, the crazy retard has fun if nothing else._

_-Talk to me now, see if I don't prove myself worthy of your trust…-_ The trees had reason, she gave them that. So now…

"Well… I paid about 60 yen per gram on tomatoes today. I don't really think it's that fair, are tomatoes in shortage or something?" Solaris tested the waters with something safe.

_-I would think the season for them is almost over.-_ As Solaris considered it, and continued her talking, the tree proved itself more and more trustworthy. Soon it was almost two in the afternoon.

"I have to go home now."

_-Home? You could not just stay with Azura?-_ the tree asked, and Solaris shook her head.

"No, I can't. If I don't go home to the ningen who offered me a home, I'll worry him. And I don't want that. He has been very kind to me." With that she bowed slightly, and damned if the trees didn't sway just a bit! "Goodbye! See you tomorrow!" she smiled and left.

--

The fury cut the link to the tree and sighed. What a stroke of luck that there was a breeze! The angel entered with a glass in hand, and the fury accepted, drinking the ambrosia down to the last drop. This was thirsty work, and it would take a while to gain the Gray's trust. She only acted foolish, but in truth this one was a very shrewd, clever little half-breed. But no matter. The fury was no slouch in the mental department herself. Sooner or later the little Gray would trip herself up. And when she did, the fury would be there to catch her.

"Azura… really clever. The dual languages trick?" the angel asked. Azura was 'endless peaceful blue' in the angel's language, but 'underlying danger' in the demon. If Solaris's middle name was about as peaceful as it got in the demon language, Azura was about as dangerous as one could get without encroaching on a tribe leader's right. Typically, when a demoness changed her name upon becoming a tribe leader (provided she lived that long and was powerful enough), Azura was a popular choice, followed by Shirai (meaning 'powerful slayer' in demon).

"Yes. Lull her with the language she knows by rote, and follow the one she doesn't know as well as she would like to think." The fury laughed. "Oh, yes, 'Azura' I was before, 'Azura' I shall be again." And with that she laughed, low and dark, echoing through the room and reverberating to fill the empty hall with noise.

--

Solaris was a little strange today. Kurama could see that she was a little sad, and her song choice even reinforced that.

"_Would you know my name  
__If I saw you in heaven?" _With hardly a noise, she let the words flow from her lips. Kurama was confused; she had seemed so happy that morning, what was wrong now? Her recipe had turned out perfect the first time, and she even said she had met a new friend on her way home through the park. But she hadn't really said who it was, just said he'd never believe her and went on to cleaning up the dinner mess.

"Solaris, come on, I'm not going to doubt you. After running into you, I think I can arguably say that the world isn't as small as I thought it was once." She turned to him, a serious look on her face.

"Promise you won't think I'm crazy?"

"Promise."

"Well… my new friend is a tree… Don't laugh! Everything has its own voice! Your ningen ears just tune it all out for the sound of other ningen! Ooh, I knew you wouldn't get it!" she declared and stormed off. Kurama stopped laughing and caught her.

"I'm sorry, but… it's a little tough to believe. A tree? But maybe you're right, and I just can't hear the voices like you can." He said, trying to figure out if this was a symptom of schizophrenia. "So… what bothers you about this tree?"

"Well… it said that if I needed to talk, I could call on Azura. But… something rings off about that. Azura means 'endless peaceful blue' in the Angelic tongue, which is weird enough applied to a tree. I'd have expected Kelas, that means 'life-breathing plant'. But… I'm pretty sure Azura means something in the demon tongue as well. I can't remember it right now, but I'm pretty sure I read something about it that I always meant to remember and point out to dad. And now I can't remember it…" she sighed.

"Maybe it will come to you after a night's rest," Kurama suggested. Solaris gave him a small but dazzling smile, and nodded.

"Maybe. Thanks, Kurama. Good night." She smiled, and left to find her pajamas and climb into the futon he had set up for her in his room.

--

That night, Kurama woke up to see Solaris on her side, facing away from him, and something on her back. He looked closer to see that it was a wing-shaped birthmark, almost black, like it had been burned on to her skin. And it had detail too, definitive feather patterns. In awe, he touched the tiny wing-mark, and it began to flutter. In shock, he fell backwards, almost waking her up. She shifted a little, the wing stopped fluttering, and she went on sleeping. The mark now stayed still, like it's owner, and Kurama decided to sleep on this one.

--

The next morning, he looked over to her bed, almost expecting to see her; he had woken up much earlier than the previous day. But, where Solaris's head had rested the previous night, a small black feather now lay.

* * *

TBC

Note: The meanings of the demonic and angelic tongue are pure fabrication. They are words that are strange to me that I found pretty or fearsome, by each definition, and I have pretty well twisted them to my own use. So don't try looking up the dictionary I use, it's all in my head. Next Chapter…

"_More lies about a world that never was and never will be…"_

"_The tree swayed, and a branch curled around her neck…"_

"_She could hardly believe they were asking her…"_


	3. Part III: Black Winged Angel

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack.

Comments: Overall I'm not too happy with how this chapter turned out, but when I wrote it I had more stuff on my mind than how to keep plot holes out of this story. So yanno, take it for what it is: a rare update.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish. And most, if not all, lyrics in this chapter are copyright Evanescence.

* * *

Part three: Black-Winged Angels

* * *

Solaris was running to Azura. Maybe, Azura knew something of this, she knew her wing had fluttered the previous night! It had to have… Suddenly she stopped. This was foolish… but she still had a desire to speak to Azura, sanity be damned. She ran deep into the forest, where she had danced the previous day, and cried out.

"Azura! Are you here?"

_-Yes, my dear. Did you have a good sleep?-_

"Yes, I slept well. Did you?"

_-I slept as well as could be imagined. It is very quiet here at night.-_ Azura replied calmly, softly soothing Solaris into a lull.

"I imagine so.."

_-What is troubling you, dear?-_

"Nothing, really. It's just… I'm thinking of home. And of a special on TV I saw this morning… It's astonishing. I've only been here three days and already I see all the faulty logic in ningen reason. They think just because they can't see heaven, it's a beautiful and peaceful place, and it's just a lot of lies. And hell? More lies about a world that never was and never will be open to me. And it just stunned me," she bluffed. She had seen no such special this morning, nor would she ever. But she just didn't think she could trust the tree with her Gray status problems yet. It took a lot more than a sympathetic ear for two days to get the vixen to open up.

_-Ningen are by nature creatures of faulty logic. You must forgive them their mistakes.-_

"Yeah. I thought so." Solaris smiled, and went on chatting with the tree, unaware that Kurama was hot on her trail as she spoke.

--

Carrying the feather with him, Kurama ran towards the park she said she had met this Azura in. He just knew he'd find her there, and sure enough he heard her singing as soon as he got into the forest, a strange language flowing from her mouth. The tiny wings fluttered on her back, lifting slightly from the skin as she floated in the air. And gradually, he came to understand the song's context: Heaven wasn't so great, Hell couldn't be that bad, and worse come to worse there was always the human earth to go to. It was a tragic sounding thing, leaving him stunned until he could see the tree move its branch toward her. A black, heartless aura surrounded the branch, and her song abruptly changed.

_"Let me stay_

_Where the wind will whisper to me_

_Where the raindrops as they're falling_

_Tell a story…_

_In my field of paper flowers_

_And candy clouds of lullaby_

_I lie inside myself for hours_

_And watch my purple sky fly over me…_

_Don't say I'm out of touch_

_With this rampant chaos your reality_

_I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge_

_The nightmare I built my own world to escape…"_

With those three verses of a popular song, she rose higher, and the wings began to grow more definitive. She continued singing, even then, her eyes going glossy amber.

_"Swallowed up in the sound of my spirit_

_Cannot cease for the fear of sudden lies_

_Oh how I long for the deep sweet dreaming_

_The darkness of imaginary lives…"_

One of the dark-aura branches moved even closer to her, wrapping itself around her shoulders, then her neck, and he saw that she wasn't really floating, the tree was supporting her. He didn't like the aura of that tree, and then the laughter poured from it, evil laughter that Solaris couldn't hear over the angelic tongue spilling from her mouth again. Picking up a discarded branch, Kurama attacked the tree, forgoing attacks with energy in order to quietly save the girl. As the branch connected with the tree, it shrieked and dropped its prey. Kurama caught the stunned girl, and took off running away, still carrying her. Gradually, she woke up.

"Solaris, what was that? You were talking to the tree, and it picked you up, and you started singing at the top of your lungs, all different things but mostly angelic, and it looked like it was going to choke you, and your wings GREW!" Kurama said all in one breath. Solaris pulled her shirt off her shoulders, to see the wing marks now had definite patterns, and maybe some movement, but she couldn't swear to it. But they had definitely grown some, she could say that. Where they had merely been about three and half inches long before, now they were the size of her whole hand (fingers included), about six inches long. She wasn't about to contest his thought.

"I guess they did… but why would I get wings now?" she asked no one but herself.

--

At the gates of heaven, a traveler arrived. She (for if the long, lean, gorgeous legs were any indication, it was definitely a she) was cloaked all in brown, her eyes and face hidden in shadows, and her body covered to mid-thigh. As the angel in charge of the gate that day eyed the morsel hungrily, he saw the red-orange tail slide around the thighs, and he began to glare.

"No demons allowed. Turn back." He said staunchly. A laughing voice emerged from the folds of the cloak.

"Oh, I think you'll make an exception, _kahrahde._" The demoness laughed seductively. The angel paled (in as much as a snowy being can pale), and tried to glare fiercely.

"Don't call me 'angel' in such a derogatory manner. Even if demons were allowed, I wouldn't let one as rude as you in!" With a flick, the cloak was removed to show a vixen with brilliant red hair, bright green eyes, and, had one inspected her shoulders, black wings about the size of her hand.

"Oh, I think you'll definitely want to make an exception. I'm here to see Shiroi! And if I don't get to see my sister, some angels are gonna wanna invest in prosthetic wings! You get me!? Take me to Shiroi and Sarue!"

--

Meanwhile, the fury cursed her luck. Trust the little Gray to have a protective ningen-incarnate of a demon! It was going to be a lot tougher to get to her now, since she couldn't and likely wouldn't trust Azura after this stunt. She had moved too fast, pushed too far in too short a time. The angel entered the room cautiously.

"Milady?"

"What? I'm in the middle of a fucking CRISIS here!" she cursed.

"I just thought you'd like to know… a small guard of angels was sent out to retrieve the Gray. It seems someone showed up for her… a demon vixen with red hair and marks like hers." The fury brightened considerably at this news.

"Ah… then there is hope for the plot after all. I can use this to my advantage… two Grays are better than one, after all!" the fury laughed maniacally.

--

_Fallen angels at my feet_

_Whispered voices in my ear_

_Death before my eyes_

_Lying next to me I fear_

_She beckons me, shall I give in_

_Upon my end shall I begin_

_Forsaking all I've fallen for_

_I rise to meet the end_

_--_

Kurama was frightened. Solaris had been singing happily, dancing even, and suddenly she collapsed into a heap on the floor, shivering and frightened. All he could get out of her was 'they're coming'. And then he found out who 'they' were.

A trio of pure-white angels landed on his balcony, and without a word, allowed themselves in courtesy of the open door. With a stifled squeak, Solaris dodged backwards to clutch at Kurama's sleeve, then tried to adopt a tough look.

"W-what do you want? I'm not dying, if that's it." She growled. To her surprise (and Kurama's as well), the lead angel knelt in front of her.

"Gray Solaris Sarue Moon, your presence is needed in heaven…" he said, sounding reluctant to debase himself to a Gray. This gave her a little courage, and she let go of his sleeve. She could hardly believe they were asking her to come back!

"What's the catch?" she asked.

"No catch… we just need you to calm down a demoness. She came to the gates threatening Hiro…"

"Hiro's a bastard, he needs a good threat once in a while." She decreed.

"And asked for your father and 'Sarue'. All we could find, the only one impudent enough to take Sarue for a name… was you."

"And if you want my damned help, you won't call me impudent. Seems to me you need me now. I'd treat your fucking savior with some respect." She grinned. Kurama could have told, even without knowing how she had been treated before, that the abuser had become the abused… and she didn't feel a shred of remorse about it. And as far as he was concerned, it couldn't have happened to a nicer group of bastards… and there he went slipping into her bad habits.

"So… will you return with us?"

"Three conditions." Solaris said, holding up three fingers, the claws on said fingers now a soft shade of red, courtesy of his mother (he honestly hadn't known she _had_ red nail polish!), and he saw the angels recoil. "Oh you stupid tenshi. It's nail polish. Ningen women use it to color their nails. Do you fools not read?"

"Oh… Three conditions, right? Name them." One of the more astute guards finally said. In the interim, her hand had relaxed, and now she brought it up to shoulder height, holding up a finger to list off her conditions.

"One, I get to take this ningen with me. I have a bet to settle with him. Okay, man, if heaven is as great as you imagined, I'll buy you a steak dinner. Don't ask how, I'll round up the money. But if I'm right and heaven sucks, you owe me, hm… Chinese." She said, and he nodded his agreement. "Perfect. Condition two! We get safe passage to and from, and no one tries to pull any funny shit on the way. No try to kill the impudent one, no maul her ningen companion and say she went mad and tried to slay you, none of that shit. And condition three! It's Solaris, yanno, Sol-Ar-Is? It's my name, use it instead of Sarue. Sarue is my middle name, like you guys would even understand the significance of that fact. First name for people I'm trying to help, middle name for people who don't know any better, last for enemies, whole damn thing only when I'm in the deepest shit of my life. Get it?" she asked.

"Got it," they all nodded, and she mimicked the movement once, a curt little nod.

"Good. Now, let's get going. And if any of my conditions are not followed to the letter, I will be one pissed off demoness, and I will be gone, capiche?" After a quick assurance that they did, indeed, capiche, the three angels and two demons took off.

--

"They're on their way, milady…" the angel assured the fury, who chuckled and tapped her claws together. She was cool enough now that her body just gave off a summery heat, and by the next day she would be cool enough to touch. Things were looking up for her.

"Excellent… come, little Gray… come running to my net…"

* * *

TBC

* * *

I guess you can figure who the red-headed demoness is. Next chapter:

"_Take a chill pill, girl! You know that thing called blood pressure?..."_

"_All he could do was watch the scene, almost like a slow motion train wreck…"_

"_Of course, I knew this would happen, which is why…"_

Also, please remember that the demonic and angelic languages are pure fabrication. Don't try looking these words up, you shouldn't find them in any dictionary. If they are part of any real language, please tell me which one. Arigatou gozaimasu!


	4. Part IV: Losing My Religion

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack.

Blood type: Started class again today. Fun and sucky all at once. Have fun.

Comments: Read the damn story.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part four: Losing my Religion

* * *

The angels gently let Solaris down to the ground, and she blinked in shock. "Oh my god… I knew when I left it was bad, but this? All the fury?" she asked.

"No, some is the one looking for you." One of the angels informed her, before a loud crashing sound caught their attention. Solaris ran off in that direction, Kurama following and mentally cursing.

He owed that girl some Chinese.

--

Solaris glared at the red-haired figure, who still laughed over her destruction. God dammit, that was her favorite hiding place! Now it was personal!

"Hey! You! Take a chill pill, girl!" Solaris yelled, catching the demoness' attention. "Yanno that thing called blood pressure? Yeah, well, it can kill you too! I think I might save it the trouble if you don't calm your happy ass down this second, though!" With slow, hesitant steps, the red-haired demoness stepped off the rubble and wreckage from her little spree, and towards the auburn, angel-raised vixen.

"Sarue?" she asked quietly, timidly.

"It's Solaris now, but yeah, Sarue is my middle name." Solaris nodded. The demon walked like one in a dream, and without even thinking, Solaris held out a hand to her. She took it slowly, then looked into the dark eyes.

"Do you have them?" she asked, confusing Solaris. "Do you have the marks?"

"The marks?" Solaris asked, then she understood. The oversized sweater came over her head, the braid moved forward, and the wings displayed. The new vixen smiled, pulled raggedly-chopped hair over her shoulder, and displayed her own wing marks over the backless top. "The wings… then that means that you're…"

"Not supposed to be here." An angel with dark hair, dark eyes, and pure white robes came fluttering down, scowling. "You or your fury-releasing sister."

"You know what, dad, kiss my ass. You never believed me or cared for me anyway, I was just an obligation to you. Split the two Grays up so the prophecy can never be fulfilled." Solaris smirked at the man. "Oh, yes, I read about that too. Is that why you always tried to get me on to romance novels and things, so I wouldn't find out why you took me to raise? A little late for that, daddy dearest."

All Kurama could do was watch what happened. Like a slow-motion train wreck, he couldn't turn away from it as Shiroi slapped his dark-haired daughter across the face, knocking her to the ground. The red-haired vixen rushed to her sister's side, then growled up at their father.

"Mom was right, you are a bastard. Looks like I owe mom some Chinese food." She growled. "Dammit."

"You may have been an obligation, but you were one I was glad to take on! Do you know how many times I have seen souls weep to return to their children? I wanted to know what could get them to do that, just what would get them to try to cheat death for kids! And after I met your mother, and she had you, I got it! I understood! You had joy in your first smile, beauty in your little furry form! Even after I saw that you were the most demonic-looking Gray ever, I was ready to take you, I wanted to take you to what I hoped would be the only home you ever wanted!" Shiroi declared. Solaris rolled her eyes.

"Puh-leeze. That's why you were willing to let them kill me for releasing the fury, that's why you believed so easily that I had done it when I was on the other side of the freaking place the whole damn time! I was fucking asleep, for hell's sakes! And still you believe another angel over your own child? I have never lied to you before, and you think I would choose now to start? That's not love. That's using your own kid for personal gain. And it just makes you an asshole." Shiroi started towards her again, and the slap issued twice: Once from her before he could do any more damage, and once from him, knocking her three feet to the side again. The red-haired vixen scampered over to her sister, growling the whole time.

"I took you from the pits of hell, where you would have been killed for being half-angel, and this is the thanks I get?!" Shiroi growled back at the other vixen, who got to her feet and pulled Solaris up with her.

"You are a sick son of a bitch. May you rot up here with no one to care for you, _kahrahde." _The red-head smiled almost evilly at the stunned look on her father's face. Abruptly her mood turned serious and she looked to her twin. "Come on, sister, we have to get to hell! Mom's really bad sick, and she wants to see you before she gets worse!"

"Hikaru is sick?" Shiroi asked for the first time. The red vixen scoffed.

"Yes, she is, no thanks to you! When she heard about this commotion and the released fury, and which one it was, she fell down, and since then she's been bedridden. Please, sis, you have to come with me!" she cried, clutching at her sister's arm.

"Honey, I am not going anywhere but back to earth…" Solaris said, then smiled calmly. "Unless you tell me your name."

"What?" she asked, then smiled. "Oh! I never did introduce myself, huh? And I'm sure dad is _dying_ to know the name of his second daughter. I am Foxglove Marie Adiea, of the clan kuroi kokoro, daughter of Hikaru and the angel of death, granddaughter to Riaru and Shinobu, niece to Hideki…well, you get the idea. The list could go on for days, and we don't have that! So, just keep it to Foxglove, okay?"

"Keep it to Solaris and we're good. Now, how can the three of us get back to mom…?" Solaris asked.

"Three?" Foxglove questioned, and Kurama coughed.

"Me. Minamino Shuiichi, just call me Kurama." He said, and Foxglove gave him a look.

"You sure we aren't related? 'Cause you look a helluva lot like me."

"I noticed, and no, I don't believe we're related." _Which is probably a good thing,_ he thought.

"Okay, just wanted to be sure." Foxglove nodded, and dragged her sister and, by extension, her sister's caretaker, with her to a large, dark bird. "I hope he can carry all three of us."

"I'm sure he can." Solaris said calmly, and with that, they took off, leaving Shiroi and the other angels in their wake.

"Well? Stop them!" Shiroi commanded.

"We can't. She gave us three conditions to follow, and one was safe passage for her and her companion." One angel said shyly, though secretly he was rather happy that Shiroi had lost the only daughter he claimed.

--

"Milady, they've left!" the blond angel cried as he ran in, breathless. The fury didn't even look up from her book.

"I know. I knew this would happen, so that's why I found this. Hikaru's illness was no coincidence." The fury smiled, every sharp little fang in her mouth revealed. "I wasn't going to chance it, though I must say Foxglove's addition was a spin. However, I can handle this little setback, and I'll counter it with my own." She got to her feet and touched the glass, pleased that now it wasn't even bubbling out at her touch. "Hikaru won't last the night, let alone enough time to see her precious 'Sarue' and warn her of the danger. It'll be some sort of… miracle… if she does. And we all know that miracles don't occur for demons."

* * *

TBC

Next Chapter:

"_She lay in the bed, looking as if death had fallen upon her…"_

"_Sarue, be aware…"_

"_My MOTHER is…!"_


	5. Part V: Beautiful Alone

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack.

Blood type: Started class again today. Fun and sucky all at once. Have fun.

Comments: Read the damn story.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part five: Beautiful alone, gorgeous together

* * *

"Are you sure this is hell?" Kurama asked Foxglove. He was having a problem believing it; the landscape, while not exactly lush, was still nice, and, heat aside, it was pretty much all right.

"Yep. Why do you ask?" she questioned.

"I dunno, I was expecting fire and brimstone, really…"

"Certain regions are the typical vision of hell, yes, but I tend to stay out of them." Solaris was too in shock to say anything, looking for anything she could recognize. "Sis?"

"This is where I was born? This is my home?"

"Nah, home's where the heart is." Foxglove said, and spurred the bird on faster. Solaris did nothing, just held on tighter. To the untrained eye, she would have seemed relatively calm.

To Kurama, who was the one she was holding on to, the new tautness in the shirt across his stomach said otherwise. And when they finally landed, she didn't really let go, she just transferred her hold to his sleeve. This got old really fast, so during the trek to her mother, out of Foxglove's sight, he moved her hand to his and held on just as tight as she did.

Well, at least she had the good grace to blush.

--

"Mom? I'm back!" Foxglove called. They had made a quick stop for her to catch a rabbit, one that was undoubtedly dinner (or the makings thereof). A roan-colored vixen coughed and smiled from a futon on the dirt floor of the den.

"Welcome home, Foxglove… I smell newcomers… and rabbit."

"Right on both counts, mom. Bunny for dinner tonight, how do you want it fixed?" she asked, dropping the rabbit by a small fire and going to her mother's bedside. The grip on Kurama's hand tightened, and he realized that Solaris was nervous. Stood to reason. She was meeting the woman who had given birth to her for the first time, and her mom was dying all at once. It was bound to be an emotional time for her.

"Introduce me to your new friends, please, Foxglove?" Hikaru asked softly, still smiling. "If you wait much longer, you'll be introducing them to a corpse."

"Don't say that, mom! You aren't going to die!" Foxglove declared. Hikaru just laughed softly again.

"You've never been one for self-delusion, now is not the time to start. Now I need my brave flower… And I need to know your friends."

"All right… The ningen male is Kurama, and… you should know the other girl, mom."

"Describe her to me. You know if I move too much I start coughing."

"Well… she's not very tall… same height as I am, in fact. She has long auburn hair and eyes that look almost black, but they're really brown. She's incredibly pale, just a little hint of color to her skin, and she's dressed like a ningen boy… denim and a big sweater that's tied around her waist, and a tank top… and she has wings like mine, mom." Foxglove smiled, and Hikaru tried to bolt up, but started coughing again. Foxglove supported her mother, while trying to calm the fit.

"Sarue?" she hacked out and Solaris stiffened a little by Kurama. Her hand tightened its hold, until Hikaru reached out her arms, smiling gently. "Come over here, Sarue. Let Mother give you a hug…" The tears that had been welling up in Solaris's eyes overflowed and she let go of Kurama to go to her mother, sobbing. "Oh my girl… you're every bit as beautiful as I thought you would be…"

"Oh, mom…" Solaris cried, as Kurama stood back and watched. "Mom… why did I have to go to heaven?"

"Your father didn't exactly ask my permission. After I told him I was going to have kits, he left and I didn't see him again until after the birth. He showed up, looked at you two, and picked you up, making you look human then and there. He forced your change, love; your powers are faster to develop because of it. Then he said 'I'm taking her… and she will be called Kotone, harp tone'. He was going to follow my mother's idea of giving me a ningen name. I told him to call you Sarue." Hikaru wept quietly.

"He did call me Kotone for a while… then he made the mistake of telling me your wish, and I changed my name. The angels already hated me; I couldn't have it be my first name. It's my middle name now, mom… I'm called Solaris now."

"Of the sun… that's lovely…" Hikaru said distantly. "And how is Shiroi?"

"A bastard, just like always. He believed the other angels over me, and they said I let out a fury… I was all the way on the other side of the joint, as far away from the furies as I could be while still being in heaven, and he took their word over mine. So I ran… and that's how I met Kurama…" Solaris explained, pushing the tears off her mother's face as her mother mirrored the action to her oldest daughter.

"I'm not happy about the reason, but I'm glad I got to see my daughters together at least once… before I die."

"Mom, don't say that. You're not going to die!" Foxglove declared.

"Foxglove, don't delude yourself. You and I both know that I'm not long for here. Pretty soon I'll see Shiroi again… as my executioner."

"Dad doesn't execute. He escorts souls to their final place… or reincarnation. Whichever they have been deemed worthy of." Solaris explained. "But Foxglove's right, you can't die! Not yet! I just met you, and it's not fair! I have so much I want to ask you, to learn… I don't know all of the demon language, I only know what I picked up from the books I could get my hands on… and I don't know anything about this place, and I want you to teach me! You're my mother; you're supposed to teach me these things, right?" Solaris asked, still crying. Hikaru laughed as she slowly lowered herself back to the futon.

"This is true. But I couldn't keep you. Shiroi muttered something about a prophecy that I wouldn't understand, and stole you away from me. When I tried to catch him, his angelic guards held me back until he was gone. I couldn't come get you; they wouldn't even let me near the gates… And now I missed out on so much of your life, and I hate not only Shiroi, but myself for it. And I can't teach you, honey. I won't last much longer, and there's so much to teach… you'll have to get Foxglove to teach you… She's a wonderful teacher…" Hikaru sighed as she drifted off to sleep. Foxglove let her mother's hand go and picked up the rabbit again, taking it outside to skin it and start preparing it. Solaris stayed in the den, watching her mother sleep.

"All my life… dad said horrible things about my mother. I never believed them. And I'm glad I didn't. Mom's not a terrible person, she's just a woman who wasn't allowed to keep her children together… because of some stupid prophecy! I'm tempted to find the person who pointed dad in the direction of that text and kill them! I really ought to!" she declared, furious. She turned and stalked outside, starting to beat up a tree in her anger. Foxglove watched her sister, and shook her head when Kurama started towards her.

"Let her do that. It always calms me down when I get mad. Probably why we had to climb over so many fallen trees. Mom didn't always seem as nice as she does now. In fact, for a while, I thought about running away. Then I asked myself what mom would do if I did. She'd already lost sis, she couldn't handle losing me too. I swear, if demons could be sainted, I think my case would have been made, just dealing with her for that long. But she settled and it all turned out all right. And look, sis is calmer." Sure enough, Solaris was calmer now, and she came back to them, knuckles bloody. Kurama just wiped the blood away with his shirtsleeve; the scratches weren't that severe, and she would heal pretty fast. Foxglove smiled a little and looked at her hands.

"If I weren't all bloody right now from skinning dinner, I'd hug you. Ever had rabbit stew?"

"No… does it taste like bread and honey? Or Chinese food?" Solaris asked.

"Uhm… no clue about bread and honey. But it only tastes like Chinese if you fix it a certain way. I'll put it on to cook and wash up. Sis, you should do the same. And Kurama? We won't be too long, if you want to go ahead." Foxglove smiled.

"Thanks." Kurama said, and headed for a nearby stream. When he got back, the girls headed out, and Kurama chanced a look into the den, just to see how Hikaru was doing. The vixen lay on the futon, looking like death was upon her, a slight wheeze accompanying every breath. Quietly, he prayed that Hikaru was wrong and she wasn't going to die. In his heart he knew the truth, though.

Hikaru wasn't going to last the night, and that was if she was lucky. Just as he got back out, the girls returned, and Foxglove entered to get the stew off the fire.

"It's been really hot in there lately; Mom's been cold all the time lately. It's best if we eat out here." Foxglove suggested, and they agreed. Halfway through supper, the rabbit stew lost its appeal to Solaris, and she picked up her uneaten portion and took it in to give to Hikaru. To her surprise, her mother was awake, and her breathing was labored. Solaris hurried over and sat her plate by the futon.

"Mom, please, calm down! I can bank the fire if you want… and I brought you some of Foxglove's stew. She did a really good job, too…" Hikaru reached up and clutched Solaris's shoulders.

"Sarue… My precious one… tell Foxglove I'm sorry I didn't get to try this batch… she's always had problems with it..."

"What are you saying, mom? I brought some in for you, you should try at least a little, it might make you feel better…"

"Don't waste your food on a dying fox… I sense Shiroi coming for me…" Hikaru sighed, but then her face took on a startled look. "Sarue… be aware…"

"Of what, mom?" Solaris asked. "Be aware of what?"

"The prophecy… your father said I wouldn't understand it… and I didn't… because it was in the tongue of angels… but you… you who was raised as an angel… albeit a Gray… you can read it… know the prophecy… and determine your own… fate…" Hikaru said as she lay back down and her hands fell to her sides, a small smile on her face. Solaris blinked back tears.

"Mom? C'mon, mom, you have to eat… just a little? For your precious Sarue?" Solaris pled, and lifted the woman up a little to try and give her a spoon of the stew, but the lips wouldn't open, not a bit.

The last thing that had passed Hikaru's lips… the last thing that would ever pass her lips… was a warning to her oldest daughter, one that the Gray didn't even fully understand.

As it finally sank in that Hikaru wasn't going to be eating, talking, or breathing again, not even for her 'Precious Sarue', a whimper escaped Solaris's throat, and as she began to cry, a loud howl ripped from her vocal cords, one of fury and sorrow intermingled.

"MOTHER! YOU HAVE TO LIVE!" she wept, laying the body back to the futon, and sobbing furiously over the vixen's breast. "You have to live, mom, you just have to! I had so much I wanted to know about you, about Foxglove when she was young, about our family, about everything! You can't just leave like this! Not that cryptic! You have to explain that warning!" she wept, drawing her twin and the ningen boy in.

"Solaris… calm yourself… mom was resigned to it… and look. She's smiling. She got to see her oldest daughter just once before she died. It made her life, to see what a beauty you've become." Foxglove tried to console. She had accepted that Hikaru was going to die, she knew it was only a matter of time, but to have her mother die over supper, and quite possibly the best stew she had ever made… this bit the big one. Kurama put a hand on her shoulder.

"I understand…" he said quietly. Apparently, he wasn't quiet enough; Solaris whirled around, fury etched onto her face like a carving. Anger blazed in her eyes, giving them an amber overcast, and she shrieked.

"You UNDERSTAND?! How can you UNDERSTAND?! My MOTHER is dead! And I knew her for all of two hours! How can you understand what I'm going through right now?! No fucking way in any of the seven rings of hell can you understand what I'm going through! No way can anyone understand what I'm going through! God, Foxglove was raised by her, so even my own sister can't get it! Just… leave me alone, God Dammit!" she cried, and ran out of the den weeping. Kurama ran after her, and left Foxglove alone, weeping at the sight of her mother's body.

"At least you died with a smile on your face, mom. Did you give her your message?" Foxglove asked, then broke down sobbing by the futon. It was all at once her happiest day, and her worst day.

--

"Solaris! I know you're here! I can hear your whimpering! You're acting like a child!" Shiroi yelled. Solaris emerged from the trees, eyes rimmed with red and furious.

"You fucking had to take her now, didn't you?! It was just there, you had to douse her life like that?! You want to know the pain I feel right now?! You never can! You could plunge a dagger into your breast, slit your throat, and get hit by a train, and that could never equal a fraction of what I feel right now, you bastard! I know my own mother for two hours out of so many centuries spent with a pig-headed, shallow, narrow-sighted son of a bitch and you take my own mother from me! First you took me from my mother, then you take her from me! I'll tell you what I'm acting like right now! I'm acting like I should! Like I should have all those years and decades and ages ago: I'm raising hell for your crime!"

"My crime?" Shiroi asked, confused. She wasn't sane; the grief had driven her to madness.

"The crime of stealing a child from her mother! Of taking one of the few people I should have been able to turn to when I was young, and taking her life after I only know her for two whole fucking hours! If I had a sword right now, you would be one dead son of a bitch!" Solaris declared. Kurama broke through the trees then, and grabbed Solaris, turning her so she could cry into his shirt. The red-head shot the dark-haired angel a glare, and held tighter to the Gray sobbing in his arms.

"I don't like how you went about it, Shiroi. But you have a job, and you better get to it before she figures out that she could use the whole damn forest as a weapon if she felt so inclined. And I think she does."

"She should understand by now, I don't kill them. I am just a guide." Shiroi said. "And now you should understand that too. I didn't kill Hikaru." For the first time, Shiroi's eyes softened and turned a little misty at the thought of the vixen that had parented his two children. "By God, I wish it hadn't been Hikaru." With that he hurried away, to retrieve Hikaru's soul and take it with him so she could be reincarnated. After parenting a Gray and wondering about her other one, Shiroi didn't care if the Lord himself opposed it, Hikaru had a reincarnation lined up, and a nice cushy one in heaven if he could wrangle it.

"Why did you stop me?" Solaris wept. Kurama smiled gently down at her, and dried a tear from her eyes.

"Because I didn't want you to get blood on your hands from your dad. He's not worth it. And…" he sighed. "I understand what you're going through. My mom came pretty close to death once too. I was willing to die for her, if she could just live."

"What happened?" Solaris asked.

"Someone saved me." Kurama explained. "Now, your turn to talk. Hikaru warned you about the prophecy, right?"

"Right." She nodded.

"But back in heaven, you told Shiroi that you knew about the prophecy. Specifically, that the two Grays had to be split up so it wouldn't come true. So, what's up with that?"

"Well… I know of the prophecy. But that's about the extent of it. I could be wrong, but this prophecy is talked of so much, that everyone's lost sight of what it really is. Shiroi had a copy at one time, but he caught me looking at it and got rid of it pretty fast after. I mean, I never saw it after that. So that had to be it. The only part I got to see before he caught me was something about twin Grays being born where none had before, and he took me from mom. I figured that was why he took on the burden of having a child." Solaris said quietly. "How's sis?"

"Holding up pretty well under the circumstances." Kurama said. "She mentioned burial rites before you…"

"Went nuts?" Solaris suggested.

"That works. So… you get a rather unwanted culture lesson right there." He sighed. She stepped back, dried her eyes, and tried to smile.

"Then let's get back. I need an explanation. Big time." Solaris said, and walked away, Kurama following. By the time they got back, Shiroi was nowhere to be found, and the presence of Hikaru was… gone. Not away, not out to lunch, just gone. The twins began to cry again, leaning on each other for support this time, and all Kurama could do was put a hand on each of their shoulders, holding them when they turned to him like kits.

--

"You were right, milady. Hikaru didn't even last through their supper." The angel reported to the fury. "But… I think that miracle happened."

"What?" The fury asked, in a dangerous voice. "Did she get all of it?"

"No, milady. Only told the Gray to be aware of the prophecy, and to know and decide her own fate."

"Good. Cryptic enough that the little Gray won't get it. All is right with the world." The fury smiled, and went back to watching the newly-born angel… one with a slightly roan-ish tone to her beautiful blonde tresses.


	6. Part VI: GlowingGluhen

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack.

Blood type: Aspirin. I've had a goddamned migraine all day and I still feel like I'm not really in my own body.

Comments: Read the damn story. Also, I know 'glowing' and 'gluhen' are the same damn thing. Kiss my ass, all right? I've been under a lot of stress lately.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part six: Glowing –OR-Gluhen

* * *

"SOLARIS!" There was Shiroi's voice again. The ten-year old sighed and stretched, wishing she could get the stiffness out of her shoulders. It felt like she should have wings… bloody hell, she technically should have, being a Gray, but then she should have been a blonde with gray wings, but she wasn't… thank whatever for small favors. She could handle the lack of wings if she didn't have to be blonde like every other damned critter in this place. After a few seconds, the girl decided that her father could go to hell… nah, wait. He could send her back to her mother and that would be much more preferable. After all, she hadn't met her mother, but there was no way she could be worse than her father. After all, her father was a jerk, and not just a jerk, but a conceited one at that. So she didn't move from her hiding spot.

_After all, why should I? He's no fun. I never get to play, and he never even tries to do the whole father-daughter bonding thing. I know I wasn't wanted, but god dammit, he could at least pretend to make an effort!_ She thought as she laid back and went back to sleep. Shiroi gave up the search rather fast; if his child didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be, and god help the poor son of a bitch he stuck with the task… and her when she got home. She was really going to be in for it.

--

_Just before her birth…_

--

It was done. The fury had been sealed, and she would stay there for a long time. She had called herself Azura, and perhaps at one time she had been the most frightening thing in hell, but now she was sealed, and harmless. The angels all congratulated each other… all save for one, the Angel of Death, Shiroi. He turned towards the gates. Gabriel caught up with him and smiled a dazzling smile; she was twin to another angel of the same name, but it was he who would get all the recognition. Currently all she was worried about was getting in Shiroi's good books. That way, she could have him, and if she ever had to go down to earth, maybe he could put in a good word for her and her incarnation.

"Shiroi, why aren't you celebrating? The battle's over, we won!"

"I have business to attend to."

"Where? On earth?" she asked; he was such a stoic sometimes! The only time she had seen any expression on his face whatsoever was when he received a letter from parts unknown; he had burned it before she could get a look at the return address. As his future consort, she felt she had a right to know! (Of course, she should have known she was merely deluding herself, but a turn of events would bring her fantasy crashing down around her ears relatively soon.)

"In hell." Shiroi said and kept walking. Gabriel, undaunted, kept her pace with his.

"But the next conference isn't for another decade!" she gasped.

"I know that. Stop prying, Gabriel, it's none of your concern," he said, and pushed the gates open, stretching his magnificently black wings, a breeze ruffling his dark hair and white robes.

"But I want to know why you can't be bothered to be happy on such a joyous occasion!"

"I SAID it's none of your concern. Drop it, Gabriel. You and the rest will find out soon enough."

"Just a hint?" she asked. "Please?"

"Is this hint worth your reincarnation?" he asked, and she stepped back. "It concerns my fate and the fate of the world. That's all I will say. And if I hear it when I get back from anyone short of Him, I will know who to rebirth as a toad." As he took off, Gabriel shuddered; she hated the idea of being a warty toad! She made up her mind to pretend she had never heard it, or even followed Shiroi that day.

--

"Call her Sarue…" Hikaru gasped. She had just given birth to twins, beautiful girls with black, wing-shaped birthmarks on their shoulder blades. Though these sleeping babes didn't know it yet, they were Hanten, or more commonly, Grays. All their lives they would never fit in, even with other Grays.

For one thing, they had been born fox, the marks hidden under fur that looked slightly darker. For another thing, they were the only set of Gray twins to ever be born… that ever would be born. Shiroi looked over at the demon that had birthed his illegitimate children, the beauty Hikaru.

The two had met almost a year ago, at the previous conference. It had been love at first sight, and the two were inseparable for the whole time of the conference… and even for some time after. After all, Death had the ability to go anywhere he liked, as long as he said he was looking for souls to bring back. Funny how none ever turned up… and then, one day, he got the letter saying that Hikaru was pregnant. All the visits stopped, though he kept track of her pregnancy. Finally, on the day that they caged the fury, she had given birth. And now he had two beautiful daughters, one with fur that looked to be a brighter red, the other with a slightly russet tone, making her look almost auburn. It was the auburn daughter that he picked up, and sped her development along a little, power-wise. She now took on the form of a human infant, and the marks were clearer. Another touch and she would stay human.

"She will be Kotone." He decreed, ignoring Hikaru's pants.

"Call her Sarue." She pled. He turned to leave, the two angels that had joined him turning to go too. Hikaru got to her feet, and stumbled toward him.

"NO! Don't take my child!" she cried, but the guards held her back. He looked back at her, and she could almost see sorrow in his eyes. Little did she know that he was remorseful over this… that all of this had happened.

"I'm taking her. Concentrate on raising the other one… call her what you will… but please… put Marie in her name for me. I'm sure… Kotone will want Sarue in hers." He said, and walked away, leaving Hikaru crying for her child.

Upon his return, when Gabriel saw he had a baby, a demon baby, she put two and two together, and decided that she would just trust Him and her luck on her reincarnation.

After all, would He really let one of his faithful be reincarnated as a nasty, icky, warty toad?

--

_And back to today…_

--

The final steps finished, the dance was over, both girls weeping profusely and Kurama even crying himself. He had barely known Hikaru, and he wasn't connected to her in the way the vixens were, but he still felt her loss profoundly. Solaris came down from the air and the twins held each other and cried. Hikaru's body had been cremated, the burial rites said in Demonic by Foxglove and Angelic by Solaris, and a few words in Japanese by Kurama, just as it should have been: all around at the time of death saying a few noble words on the deceased. And Solaris, as extra to both honor her mother and apologize for never meeting her sooner, had danced a requiem while her sister sang. It was over, and they could leave hell now if they wished. And did Foxglove ever wish.

"Foxglove… I know it's not the best time to ask but… would you like to come to earth, to live with your sister and me?" Kurama asked over supper that night. Solaris couldn't eat, she was ill from the tears, so she had just gone in and gone to bed. Foxglove smiled a bit and nodded.

"That'd be nice. Thanks. After all, my other family moved off forever ago, after I turned ten they thought she can handle herself and left me and mom. That was mom's mean period, but she got over it when I hit a little older and got a bit more self-sufficient. Then she didn't want to let me go, and I didn't ever really object. So I've got no reason to stay, now that mom's gone. And I get the feeling Solaris needs me, and I want to learn from her too. I want to know what she said in Angelic, how she honored mom, I want to know about dad, bastard though he is, and how heaven looked before the fury kicked it's ass. And I have to teach her Demonic and some of our dances and songs and tell her what mom was like… and I wanna know about her when she was little. I should have grown up with my twin, we should have been close. Thanks to Shiroi, I'll never get to fix my childhood, and believe me when I say it was fucked up." Foxglove laughed. "But I can be here for her now, and that's what matters."

"True. Very true." Kurama said, and smiled. Two vixens, a ningen, and an apartment… sounded almost like a sitcom. And with these two, he didn't doubt that the results would be sitcom-ish. Of course, it was a little late to go now, considering that Solaris was asleep and Kurama knew from experience that she was almost impossible to wake up, so they decided they would leave the next day. "I guess I'll go on in," Kurama said after a while. Foxglove grinned up at him easily.

"You go on. I'll be in after a while… if I don't come in before you fall asleep, g'night!" she said. Kurama couldn't help it, he grinned back.

"Oyasumi." Before he fell asleep, he looked over at Solaris and smiled. One could really believe she was half-angel when she slept… and when she sang. And on the thought that she might be happier if her sister was there, he fell asleep. After a while Foxglove came in, and fell asleep instantly. Solaris opened her eyes when all was silent.

Not only did she have incredible drive to live, she also knew how to act. And that was exactly what her sleeping had been for the most part (she wasn't about to admit to the catnaps). She got out of her bed and walked outside, staring at the stars. They shone down on her brightly, and she walked out a little, towards her mother's grave. Turning her head to the stars, she closed her eyes and sang, feeling the tears slide down her face.

_"Kirameku namida wa hoshi ni_

_Kaze ni nori sou nabokazaru_

_Tsuki akari ku monitoniattemo_

_Boku wo terazu…"_

The next day, when they left, both vixens seemed happier, calmer… the change in Solaris unnerved Kurama, but she finally assured him that she was all right… mainly by saying if he didn't stop looking at her like she was insane she'd jump off the bird that was their ride back to the earth. Kurama turned to Foxglove after this.

"What exactly does this creature eat, anyway?"

"Hm… dunno, really. Never had much cause to find out. Look, I can leave him here, and if we need him, I can call him. See? You don't have to worry about keeping him. So, sis!" she said, turning to question her twin. "What's the earth like?"

"Hm… it's green. And bright… and actually pretty temperate." She said, thinking. Kurama laughed.

"You won't say that when winter comes… or summer."

"Just, gotta warn you. Stay away from talking trees. They'll try to kill you. And if you meet one calling itself 'Azura', run." Solaris said, still a little bitter. Foxglove looked shocked.

"I'm not surprised! Tell me, what does Azura mean in Angelic?"

"Endless peaceful blue," Solaris said.

"Well, here's lesson one in Demonic. It means 'underlying danger'." Foxglove said, and spurred the bird on faster, giving herself a rush, Solaris a mild scare, and Kurama a few new wrinkles in his shirt where Solaris was holding on for life.

And he wasn't too sure he minded.

**TBC**


	7. Part VII: Ice and Snow

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack.

Blood type: Water and tea. I didn't have time for breakfast this morning.

Comments: Okay, so today has been a real bitch and a half. First, I set my alarm to 6:30, woke up for about three seconds when it went off to roll over and hit the off switch. Woke up again at 7:30 and barely had enough time to shower before I realized that I didn't have class until 9 this morning. Thanks to the copious amounts of eyeliner I've worn the past couple of days, I look like Gaara from Naruto on a bad day even after I've washed my face about thirty times. I thought I'd have enough time to drink some tea before I had to leave. Between feeding cats and pulling the dog off Sephiroth (my new kitten), I barely had a chance to get dressed, get my hair combed, and finish my liquid breakfast. I left the house at blasted 8:35, drove about two or three miles above speed limit the whole way, freaked out because the route I took to get to the parking garage was teeming with cops and I had a case of dry mouth thanks to the medicine I took a few DAYS ago to cure whatever funk I had, didn't stop to get water after I had parked and gotten into the building because I didn't have any change or ones, and I STILL ended up a few minutes late for my literature class, just got in there a few seconds before she called my name. It has begun as a shit of a day for me, so you may be wondering why the hell I'm posting this at -looks at clock- 10:55 on a Friday morning when my last update was Sunday. Well, it's all because of my first reviewer for this story.  
So, BBVixenXoXo, Thank you SO much for the review, and here is the new chapter! Please enjoy! (Basically the moral of this rant is reviews make Solaris happy so if you want Solaris to get off her lazy ass and risk losing her scholarship-kidding, I study enough!- to create new stories and such lovely things for you, then send REVIEWS! They can turn an author's day from a lousy, I'm-running-late-and-undercaffeinated-and-should-anyone-mess-with-me-so-help-me-God-I'll-hurt-'em, to a bright and hopeful time. And trust me, if a quasi-goth uses bright and hopeful, you know it does good.) Also, anyone want to see any artwork from this? Let me know.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part seven: Ice and Snow 

"Yume ni miteita, ano hi no kage ni, todokanari sakebi…" Solaris sang along to the radio in the apartment while Foxglove lounged, looking at a magazine. The twins had been living with Kurama for a few months now, and winter was starting to set in. Foxglove had picked up on how to read ningen quickly, and Solaris was doing well in her Demonic language studies. Just the other day, she had cursed the superintendent of the apartment out for waking her up from a much-needed nap. And the poor man had thought the pretty lady was suffering sleep-deprived insanity, speaking gibberish, and left her to sleep again. Kurama had his classes, and the super hadn't talked to him since, so he had no clue.

Which probably wasn't a bad thing.

"Hey, sis, you going to go get him or not?" Foxglove asked. Solaris stopped singing, and nodded, smiling.

"Yeah. Guess it's time to head out, huh?"

"Not just yet, but in an hour. Hey, it says here that Sweet Pea is having a sale on sweaters and accessories. We should hit that sale, yanno? 'Cause no offense to Kurama or his bro, but I would rather not wear their clothes. A little too big for me in the hips. And a little too tight for you in the bust."

"I dunno, Kurama's clothes are pretty comfy. But I guess I'll check out that sale on my way. Anything you want in particular?" Solaris asked. "Color? What?"

"Hm… can I get that bright blue one?" she asked, pointing to a sweater in the ad. Solaris nodded, and left.

"Okay! See you in a while!" she called as she slid on some shoes and grabbed a jacket and purse. Foxglove laughed softly; her sister really showed some upbringing. Well, it was time to start on dinner anyway. It was her turn to cook. Alternating days worked out nicely like that.

--

Solaris showed up at the gate with a bag in her hand. Kurama sighed; the label read the name of one of Foxglove's favorite stores. The vixen had thrown a hat over her head, her tail in the long skirt and hidden. All of his university classmates just thought she was an incredibly attractive young woman, maybe a relative of Kurama's from out of town, and aside from setting them straight about the relative thing, he did nothing.

After all, the day she had hugged him had set them buzzing, wondering what kind of relative hugged someone like that. Pounce hugs were not really what they expected of a cousin or something.

"Let me guess, Foxglove alerted you to a sale, huh?" he asked. She nodded her reply. "Thought so."

"Well, she's always saying she's cold, so I thought I could get her something nice. And she did point it out to me."

"So it wasn't a trip for you?" Kurama asked, a little stunned.

"Not entirely. I did get a sweater for me, but I got Foxglove a sweater and some jeans." Solaris laughed as they set out. Kurama gingerly reached out for her hand, trying to rein her in at least a little. The little angel-demon cross was incredibly happy for some reason, and he really had no clue why. As he held the tiny hand, he could feel a thrumming, the characteristic feeling he got around her when she was happy.

"So… what's got you so excited?" he asked. Solaris merely grinned up at him and shrugged.

"I have no idea. I think Foxglove's a little annoyed with me for it, but I can't help it! I'm just really excited right now!" The thrumming increased and Kurama smiled; it was a soothing feeling. When they arrived home, there was a fairly large box on the table, wrapped up in blue, with a note on top of it.

_Sis,_

_Had to go home for a bit, the bazaar has major deals this time of year. But this is for you! Please keep my sister safe, Kurama. I'll be gone for a week._

_Foxglove_

"Huh?" Solaris said quietly, and opened the box. Inside was a black suit trimmed in silver, long pants, a jacket, and a halter top, with a tiny, red leather medicine bag on top of the whole kit and caboodle. The vixen opened the bag and pulled a tiny bit of paper out, staring at the demonic language.

"Sewed this myself. For the eventual battle. If you can read this, you have learned all I can teach you. Love you." Solaris read, and smiled. "So that's why she found excuses to send me out all the time." Suddenly, her expression turned serious, and she looked up at Kurama. "Where can I get a weapon? Gun, sword, scythe, anything will work," she declared.

"Uhm… there's a shop nearby, I saw a katana in their window the other day. Stands to reason they might have something else."

"Katana would be perfect." Solaris nodded, and headed to the door after transferring her money from her wallet to the new medicine bag. "I'll be back soon."

"Wait! Why do you need the katana?" he asked. She paused at the door, but didn't turn back around.

"I have a battle to fight. And a fury to defeat. And at least part of my name to regain." With that, she left, and stayed gone until late. When she returned, she carried a sword, the same katana Kurama had seen in the shop window.

"I'd have been home sooner, but the priest took forever to bless Hikaru." She said, drawing the sword and looking at it quietly.

"You… named the sword for your mother?" Kurama asked quietly, not missing the tear marks on her face.

"Foxglove said mother just fell over ill one day. I know that's not natural. And it only happens when a fury is influencing your body. That's all I can figure. What better way to take revenge for the mother I hardly knew than to defeat the fury with a sword named for her?" Suddenly, the two could hear thundering on the stairs to the apartment, and a dark-haired man, with crimson eyes, ran in, looking half-panicked.

"Kurama, I thought I saw a fox demon wander in with a sword! What's going… on?" he trailed off, staring at the tiny creature on the tatami mats in the front room. Solaris stared back, confused.

"Hiei, you're back from Mukuro's? How long have you been home?" Kurama asked, smiling.

"For a few hours. God, get home to rest up from one stressing situation, and get a heart attack before I even get good and settled in… so, who's the vixen?"

"My name is Solaris Sarue Moon, and I will have you know I'm the daughter of the angel of death!" Solaris declared, scowling. He returned it, point for point.

"And the fact that you are half angel is supposed to impress me how?" he asked.

"The fact that she actually claimed him startles me." Kurama sighed. "Solaris, this is Hiei. He lives in the apartment below mine; I've known him since middle school. Hiei, this is Solaris. It's… it's a long story."

"Which I can tell in five words: None of your damned business." She decreed, and went back to looking at the sword. Hiei smiled darkly; something was up here…

"You don't know how to use that thing, do you?"

"Shut the hell up." Solaris glared. "I'll figure it out eventually."

"Foul mouthed little angel. Point is, I know how to wield a katana, and if you were willing to shut up and do as I say, I could teach you." Solaris got in his face, surprising Kurama for two reasons: one, no one got in Hiei's face and lived to tell of it. Two, apparently Hiei was taller, because she didn't even have to incline her head to stare him in the eyes.

"I am fighting a fury to avenge my mother! I barely met her before she died from a fury-induced illness! So don't think you can teach me jack about peaceful swords and shit like that! I am not Ruroni Kenshin! I am not interested in Bushido! I just want the bitch who took my mother from me to die!"

"Good. We'll start in the morning." Hiei nodded and left. Solaris stared after him in confusion, then ran to the door and yelled.

"Didn't you hear me? I ain't interested in fucking Bushido! I want fucking revenge!"

"He knows that. He actually did something similar. Why do you think Koorime are really dying out?"

"Generations of interbreeding and no diversity." Solaris said. "Plus they live on a glacier, how the hell can you stand living on a glacier?"

"No. He went there to take revenge on the koorime for throwing him away for being the forbidden child. Then he found out they killed his mother. Look, the details aren't too clear, but let's just say he gets you." Solaris looked stunned at this, but nodded.

"So he really had it worse. Okay. I'll play nice." She grinned.

--

"Kurama, never let her watch Clamp School Detectives before she comes to train, ever." Hiei sighed as he bought the tiny vixen home the next morning. Solaris was still singing "Peony Pink", just like when she walked out earlier.

"I'd like to know where she found it on TV, myself. Just to know what channel to block in the mornings." Kurama laughed good-naturedly.

"C'mon! It's cute!" Solaris protested. "Sis has got to see it when she gets home!"

"Hey, Hiei, I'm running for groceries, do you mind staying with her while I'm gone? Thanks!" Kurama laughed and ran out, making the vixen wonder if she really needed babysitting that badly. Hiei just sat down and stared at the auburn child.

"So… why would you call the sword Hikaru?"

"For my mother." Solaris answered simply, flopping onto her stomach to trace the patterns in the tatami with her finger.

"Your mother?"

"Yeah. Mom was a demon. No duh. But dad took me away from her before I was even weaned. I wasn't even two days old before I was in Heaven. Thanks to daddy dearest. I never knew my mother until a few months ago, when I got to meet her. She was sick to death, though, and she ended up dying before I'd known her for two hours. It's all the fury's fault. And I want vengeance for my mother… for my sister… and I'm going to use that sword to get it."

"Noble. And you say you don't care about Bushido."

"I don't. I will attack my enemy from behind if I must, if it will kill it. An eye for an eye. No honor in striking my mother down, no honor spared to my enemy." Solaris decreed as she got up and headed to the refrigerator. "Want anything?"

"Water." And it stayed fairly quiet until Hiei's eyes landed on a photograph of the twins playing in the first snow of the winter. The picture was displayed in prominence, one of the few that Kurama had taken of the twins that had turned out well. Foxglove seemed to be better with the camera. Hiei picked up the photo and stared. "Who's the red head?" he asked. Solaris grinned.

"My twin. Pretty, huh? She stayed with mom when I was taken by dad. She's actually the one who brought me to mom. If she hadn't known where to find me, I would never have met my mother." Solaris grinned. "She's back in Makai right now, god knows why. Some bazaar."

"Hn." Hiei nodded. "She looks nice enough," and that ended that matter. Kurama got back later, to see Solaris asleep over the kotatsu, and Hiei watching her rest.

"You two…"

"Didn't kill each other, no. She didn't even get mad at me for anything. So we're all right. Send her back over tomorrow morning, I'll continue to train her. And tell her that when her sister gets back, to send her too. I want to meet this girl. The way she talks of her, I want to meet this little… miracle worker."

"She is. I never saw Solaris so open after her twin came home with us. She was the whole reason Solaris didn't go insane in grief." Kurama sighed, and draped a blanket over the vixen's shoulders. "I'll pass the message along, she'll probably wake up soon."

"Thanks. Night." Hiei said, barely messing with formalities.

* * *

TBC

The song Solaris sang part of last chapter was Kirameku Namida Wa Hoshi Ni from the anime Fate/Stay Night. The song she sang at the beginning of this chapter... can't remember but I bet it was from the same anime. But next time:

"_The redhead standing at his door looked familiar…"_

"_The twins looked at him, as if he had lost his mind. But what had he said?"_


	8. Part VIII: Tenshi No Uta

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, **AU** fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack.

Blood type: Red. That's it.

Comments: Yeah, I've had a craptacular time of life lately. That's why I haven't updated until now, just before finals. Wanna know what happened? Broke up with my boyfriend, various emotional crap, wanna know more (doubt it) email or pm me, you know where to get the addresses. It's just been... well, shit lately. But I am trying to recover, and that counts for something, right? Right! Oh, and please note the bolded AU in the summary. I just wanna make that clear before I get into this chapter further.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part eight: Tenshi no Uta

* * *

"Yeah, I'm coming!" Hiei growled at the doorbell. Not even bothering to look out the little eye in the door, he opened it to see a lanky-looking, tanned girl with brilliant red hair, chopped short in a messy bob cut. The azure of the sweater almost blinded him, and he blinked a few times to try and figure out why the hell this chick had woken him up from a well-deserved nap. He'd been training Solaris almost all day while Kurama was out at class, and she seemed to have some serious issues today…

A look at the clock informed him that it was nine minutes after seven, so he'd only been asleep for maybe six hours. That wasn't so bad. Hell, the bloody delinquent he had run around with in high school -but only because Kurama ran around with him and his friend, for who knew what reason… or how the hell he had met the kid. He repressed a snicker at the thought of the nicknames he'd given them: 'Detective' and 'Baka'… but the point was that all through high school, the 'Detective' had said in his mental dictionary, 'high school' must have been synonymous with 'eight-hour-naptime'. Which, in retrospect, had been true, but he still managed better grades than the guy, and he stayed awake for the most part!

"Uhm, hello? Anyone home in there?" a voice asked. His mind snapped back to attention. Right, the girl in the door. He thought she looked familiar, but he couldn't place where he had seen her before. Then she smiled. "You're Hiei-sama, right?"

"Yes, why are you asking?" Then, as an afterthought to protect against mistaking this girl (because really, how many girls would appreciate being mistaken because of some little factor like hair color?), he added, "and you are?"

"Oh, right! Sorry! I'm Foxglove Adiea. Hikaru's daughter. Solaris's twin? You can tell me if any of these ring a bell, yanno." She laughed easily, and Hiei nodded once.

"I got it right from the name. Though throwing in the last two was okay. You actually woke me up from a nap." The expression on her face changed, to worry.

"Oh, god, I am so sorry. I really didn't mean to. Do you want me to leave, come back another time?"

"No, it's all right. You probably did me a favor." Hiei said easily, and stepped back. "Come in."

"Thanks. I've actually been walking all over for the past few days. That bazaar is massive!" Foxglove chirped as she entered and leaned against a counter. "Solaris was bouncing all over me when I came in… just like a little kid. Kurama actually had to translate her for me, and passed along your message. So I'd have been here earlier, but I had to pry sis off me with a crowbar and tell her 'sit! Stay! Good girl,' before I could get out." One hand tucked behind a fox ear and her tail twitched, betraying her nerves even though she smiled openly.

"It's all right, I actually counted on Kurama passing the message along, Solaris was asleep when I issued it," Hiei revealed. "Surprises me she even knew about it."

"That's sis. We stayed up all night trading stories about when we were young one of the first nights after…" she trailed off, leaving the 'after Hikaru died' unspoken.

"I understand. Go on."

"Thanks. Well, we traded stories, and I found out that when it was something she needed to know about, she slept like she was dead, never heard a word, but when it was something she didn't need to know concerning her, she could hear everything and store it in her mind. It was _weird_. Part of why I didn't tell Kurama about the outfit I made her." Foxglove grinned. "So, anyway, why did you ask for me?"

"I wanted to meet the miracle worker. See…" Hiei said, grabbing a bottle of water from the refrigerator and tossing another to the vixen in blue, "on one of the first days of training, I asked Solaris to write down what she was fighting the fury for, to restrict it to one page. I thought she'd have a lot, that's why I imposed the restriction. But she just scrawled a little, and handed it to me. Only took up three lines. She wanted to fight for revenge for her mother, to keep her sister and Kurama safe, and to make the angels see that a Grey could amount to more than they thought."

"That's all sis wrote down? Huh. She never struck me as being a priorities type of girl."

"Apparently she is. And this got me to wondering… the genetics of this. You are a Grey too, correct?"

"You betcha!" Foxglove said, smiling. "We're actually a little better received in the demon world. Just means that whatever parent must have been really devious and-or hot to get the angel. But it's really bad in Heaven. See, that's why sis was suspected. And because she looked more demonic than angelic, even the few other Greys ignored her existence. So she's a little bitter about her life in Heaven. I don't bring it up if I can help it."

"I understand. So… do you mind telling me what a few distinguishing characteristics of a Grey are?"

"Sure!" Foxglove said, and set the empty water bottle down. "First, they generally have grey wings, hence the name. They're usually really tan, even more so than me, and have really pale hair. And that's them. Us, we're different. We only have black wing marks on our shoulders, paler skin than the average Grey, and darker hair. It's weird… but sis thinks it's because we're the first and only set of Grey twins."

"I see," Hiei nodded, taking it all in. "And you're the older twin, I presume?"

"Nope!" Foxglove smiled. "Younger by about five minutes."

"You don't act it."

"Nope." Foxglove smiled again. "So… was this the whole purpose of calling me to visit?"

"Sort of." Hiei nodded. Foxglove mused for a minute over the water bottle, and perked up an ear, smiling again.

"Hear that?" she asked, pointing at the ceiling. If Hiei listened really closely, he could hear a small voice singing… but it was faint. "Sis. She's been hooked on ningen anime since she came here. I think that's from Ouran High School Host Club… Little Wing. She's got one hell of a voice, huh?"

"It's… fitting for her…" Hiei said quietly. Foxglove smiled again.

"You should hear her sing in Angelic… And Demonic. She learns fast, so you should have no problems with her learning swords. But… if she's singing it this long, I'm willing to bet she found one of my presents for her from the bazaar. Whoever said you can't take it with you obviously did not know some of the people at this bazaar. Can you believe that they actually had tons of soundtracks and pop CDs? Bloody hell, Ayumi Hamasaki and Gackt even! At a freaking steal!" She sighed as she put the plastic bottle in the recyclables container. "Pity it only comes once a year. They have all sorts of things… weapons, leather, ningen things that you really can't even think of surviving without… though I have to say, ningen can not make a skillet for the life of them. If it doesn't burn the hell out of your hand when it's hot, it melts and makes the food taste terrible." Hiei suppressed another laugh at the girl. "But anyhow, I better get home. Plus, I got her another thing… actually something Kurama asked me to get her." Foxglove pulled a small bag from a pocket, and pulled out a thin golden chain with a small emerald heart at the end of it.

"It's so impractical… but he said to get it for her."

"That sounds about right. But I wonder… I'll ask him another time," Hiei told her. "Thanks for visiting."

"Anytime… actually, it was fun. Maybe we could talk some more… another time?" Foxglove asked. Hiei couldn't help but grin at this.

"Maybe." He said, and she left. Yeah, maybe he could talk to this vixen more. She'd make life really… interesting.

--

The fury watched the tiny vixen sitting on the windowsill, singing 'The Merry Go Round of Life' in rich notes, making it sound almost as if the song actually had lyrics instead of just instrumental. A new emerald glittered at her throat in the streetlamps, and the fury smiled. The boy had done some homework. If he had been dealing with her predecessor, the emerald would have scared _her_ into submission. But that one was long gone, so it didn't matter.

"Pretty little Grey… new necklace? Lovely on you… but that won't protect you when I have you in my clutches. That pretty voice will be shrieking for the pain to stop… and I'll be your only comfort. Your ningen world will be a mess of flames, and all those people you care for will be dead… and I will be the only one you can come to." She laughed maniacally and the angel listened outside the door, beginning to wonder if he had chosen the wrong person to ally with. He just had no idea how right he was…

* * *

TBC

Next time:

"_The battle was about to begin. The vixens were ready…"_

"_The bird soared higher, and was about to reach Heaven when…"_

"_That Fury is a madwoman! I swear to you…" _


	9. Part IX:Battle without Honor or Humility

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack.

Blood type: Sick. I have a freaking cold. Someone please find a freaking cure for this shit!

Comments: I'd have updated sooner but for a couple of things: the emotional issues that have been plaguing me lately returned with a bitch of a vengeance, so I've been using this time to reconnect with old, true friends, and trying to forget false friends. Hey, I have that right as a heartless bitch. Also, classes have started back for me. So I've been getting back into the swing of things. And working on AkuRoku ficcage... which I will not post unless someone really wants me to. I promise. Anyway, please enjoy.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part nine: Battle without honor or humility

* * *

It was mid-May. The vixen twins had rung in their birthday by training. Since Foxglove had come back, she had been talking to Hiei more, and as more and more weeks passed, it seemed like Solaris got more and more driven to avenge her mother. It was starting to disturb Foxglove, especially after she had caught Solaris double-enchanting the chain of her necklace and the strap of the medicine bag to make them unbreakable. Hiei, however, was pleased.

Solaris was driven, training harder than ever, why wouldn't he be? But one incident after training stunned him. When Solaris had pulped her third training dummy that day, she merely plopped down to the ground, sheathed Hikaru, and scowled at the sawdust as if it had done her a personal wrong. When asked what was wrong, she glared.

"I'm tired of this. I think I've pulped enough of these bastards. I wanna go after the real deal, now." She decreed. Hiei had sighed, chalked it up to exhaustion, and given her the rest of the day off. Kurama had come in that evening to find her in the window singing again, a loud angered song he couldn't have expected of her. He'd just gotten out of a major exam, one of his finals actually, and he really hadn't wanted to come home tired to hear her singing something that would have been fit at an 'I-Hate-The-World' convention or something. In exhaustion, he had rested his forehead on the back of her head, the scent of the vanilla shampoo she always used enveloping him.

"Can you sing something else? I just got out of a final, and I'm sort of tired…" She was out of the window in a flash, starting on dinner just as Foxglove got back from visiting Hiei.

"Hey, I got this. You go sing or something, okay?" Foxglove smiled. Solaris looked at her sister oddly, but obeyed. Kurama was lying down on the floor, too tired to even move to the futon. Solaris just sat down near him, moved his head so he could rest on her legs, and started singing some soft tune, trying not to think of how furious she really was. Gradually the feeling subsided, and she was truly calm by the time Foxglove had dinner done. She gently shook Kurama awake, and dinner went that way. After dinner, she fell asleep in front of the window, and Foxglove sighed.

"Finally. She's been furious all day, it's kind of scary…"

"Why? What was wrong?" Kurama asked, helping the red-headed vixen clean up.

"She wants to go after the fury now, but Hiei isn't sure she's ready. She can pulp a practice dummy, no problems… but he's a little afraid to know if she can go after a fury. Her wings might choose to grow then, and with the unfamiliar element, the fury would have the upper hand… plus… I found the scroll with the legend on it. It was a real steal at that bazaar…"

"What does it say?" Kurama asked. Foxglove shushed him, looked back at her twin, who was still sleeping, and sighed.

"She'll know if we move her, and she'll hear if we stay in here. If we hide in your room, we should be all right as long as we keep our voices down."

"Right," Kurama nodded, and they snuck into the other room of the small apartment. Foxglove pulled a small scroll from her bag, and unrolled it to the length of a tatami mat and a half.

"It's pretty detailed, and in older language," she whispered. "But what I've been able to piece together is this.

"In the first days of demons and angels, there was still much cavorting done. Cavorting being a nicer term for 'screwing each other's brains out'. There were many Grays born in that time, all incredibly powerful, all capable of using light and dark magic. Several of the tormented Grays became furies, but those were easy to take down. Its full-fledged demon furies like the one who killed our mother who are going to be the pains in the ass to defeat.

"Anyhow, one of these many Grays had a unique talent: she could see the future. So Sybil the wise… that's her, by the way, became an oracle to the heavens and hell. One day she peered into her crystal lake, and saw two little vixens being separated. What frightened her was that when she sank into the prophecy, she knew they were Grays, and the only set of twins to ever be born. She saw the wings on the humanized one's back, and knew that this one was going to be in for hell in heaven.

"A few days later, she sank into another prophecy, this one far more frightening than the last. She saw the little Gray vixen, all grown up, her wings tattered and bleeding, blood tears falling from amber eyes…and behind her, a powerful fury. Heaven was burning to the ground, hell was even worse, and earth, well… earth was doomed, not much else to say there. She saw corpses everywhere, angel, demon, human, it didn't matter. This fury had used the Gray to conquer the world, and now it was going to hell in a hand basket. No one could stop her, not even the most powerful angels, and even God was going to have a problem fixing this mess. She didn't know the name of the Gray, or the fury, the prophecy wasn't so clear as to that, but she did know that it was one of the only set of Gray twins to ever be born…"

"Solaris and you…" Kurama said in stunned quiet.

"Sis and me." Foxglove nodded. "We are the only set of twins to ever be born from a union between an angel and a demon. And the fury is after sis. She'll stop at nothing to get her… but this scroll isn't just prophecy. This is Sybil's notes on factors of a Gray's existence.

"If the Gray's wings are torn, mutilated, or damaged in any other way, the Gray might die. It makes it a hella lot easier to control the Gray, that's for sure. Grays, when infuriated, are also incredibly powerful, much more so than a starter-rank angel or a low-to-mid-class demon. It's scary… But she also included her thoughts on the twin Grays.

"Because they're the first in history, this is all pure speculation. But if the twin Gray's wings emerge, they will be black. And if the fury should get hold of the stolen twin's wings, then the world is doomed. So we have to keep Solaris safe and training until she can take the fury." Foxglove sighed. "I've seen sis training, and while she is tough, I don't really think she's ready to take on the fury."

"She needs to be…" a voice said, as Solaris walked into the room. Her eyes had gone amber, but taken on a blue cast that made the sight even more peculiar. "I'm sorry, but this is the only way I can talk to you."

"Who are you?!" Foxglove asked, furious. "And how long have you been listening?!"

"Long enough… Look, I live in heaven… originally I thought that Azura was the way to go… I let her out, and then spread the rumor that Solaris had been seen there. I couldn't let them know I did it… But now… she's gone power mad, obsessed with your sister… she wants the black winged angel. And she'll stop at nothing."

"How can we trust you?" Kurama asked.

"I can give you information that she gave you, that no one else should know." The imposter said.

"Then prove it."

"…She was almost killed, and she came here in a gray tunic. By the time she got here, it was all torn. Her father… when she was ten… at least in heaven… she hid from her father and he never came. I was the one sent to find her… and she didn't like it a bit when I found her."

"Anyone could figure that out." Foxglove scowled.

"Okay then… how about some stuff that should be obvious to you two since you live with her?"

"Try it." Kurama said.

"Her favorite colors are purple and black, her favorite food is strawberry pocky, and she named her sword Hikaru for her mother. She's always been a little angry about her mother being taken so early, and she's been known to sing hard rock songs when she's mad. She's scared to death of spiders and she loves puppies. The little stray in the alley? She calls him Jonouchi."

"She actually says scared shitless, but that will work." Foxglove nodded. It was all true, down to the dog in the alley. "What have you got for us?"

"Ever since Azura escaped, she's been power mad, but still quiet. She wants to take Heaven in a surprise attack, then while Hell is still reeling from the shock, take them. Earth won't be so hard to get, especially if she has the black-winged angel… but has Solaris ever had her wings come out?"

"Once, when Azura almost had her. She was disguised as a tree, and she had Solaris in her branches, but her wings were flared out. I don't think they were as big as they could get, though…" Kurama mused.

"They weren't. I can make them grow, no problems, and then she will be powerful enough to defeat Azura… but it comes at a price…"

"What's that price?" Foxglove asked.

"She's strong enough for her wings to grow now, but she won't let them… if I open that pathway for them to grow, she'll be in horrible pain until they're out, her balance will be compromised... and Azura will redouble her efforts to get her… but your wings should grow out too, Foxglove."

"…Don't. I don't want her to deal with that until she's ready." Foxglove said. "I don't think she's ready to fight Azura right now…"

"I don't think she has much of a choice." The angel said, as a look of pain flickered across Solaris's face. "I may have stayed too long… and her wings might just be reacting to the power… and they might just think that it's time to wake up."

"You _kahrada!" _Foxglove snarled. "If you weren't in my sister's body, I'd tear your wings off and feed them to dogs!" Just then, a musical shriek pierced the night, and her twin gritted her teeth, holding in her own shriek. The spirit of the angel left Solaris's body, and normally ink-toned eyes opened as amber just as Hiei ran in.

"What's going on, I heard a scream!"

"Back up!" Foxglove ground out. "You're about to witness the waking of an angel's wings… Two, actually… Get her to the roof!" Foxglove commanded, and the two vixens were rushed to the roof. As Solaris's mouth held open in one long shriek, the wings began to swell at her shoulders, and Foxglove's reacted with her. This time even Foxglove couldn't hold back a scream, and the two notes twined into the night. With a sudden burst of motion and a wet rustle, wings burst from each twin's back, iridescent as a wet crow's wing and just as black as night. Solaris still didn't have full control of her mind, and so she took off, beating the wings to dry them. Foxglove followed her example, but was in full control.

"I'll go after her, she has no idea what she's doing! You two keep watch for us!" And with that, she took off, following her sister's flight. For two hours they flew, Solaris coasting over the city.

"Sis! Wake up!" Foxglove cried as her sister hovered over the city, and she caught up just in time to see Solaris's eyes come back to their normal black, then promptly roll back into her head as she passed out.

--

"Hey! There's Foxglove!" Kurama said, pointing out the black winged angel to Hiei. She carried her sister, wings carefully folded under her. "Was it difficult?"

"A little… then she passed out right as I caught up." Foxglove sighed. "In the meantime, we're going to have to find a new place. I can't retract my wings… and your apartment will be too small to fit two full-winged angels and you too."

"Right…" Kurama sighed. Hiei thought for a minute, then nodded.

"We have our portions of Genkai's temple. If we take time off and go there until this Azura thing is over… we can manage this." Hiei nodded.

"I can't come right now… I have my final exam tomorrow, and a cumulative exam in lab two days after that. I'll be there in four days, though." Kurama promised.

"Solaris is going to be sad…" Foxglove said.

"I'll call every night to see how your training goes. And it's just four days. Not a big deal. Hiei, take good care of them for me." Kurama sighed. Hiei nodded.

"All right… I'm sorry, but you're going to have to set out right away. It's a long trip, and if you can't pull your wings in we're going to have to get started right away." Hiei said, and Foxglove waved it off.

"I can fly it… I'm just worried about sis… wait! Budgie!"

"You named that monster bird Budgie?" Kurama asked.

"He sorta looks like a Budgie…" Foxglove said.

"Not even remotely Budgie-esque." Kurama sighed. Hiei was starting to get mad.

"Who or what the hell is Budgie!" Hiei yelled.

"Budgie is my demon birdie!" Foxglove chirped. "We flew back over here on his back after mom…" She shook her head. "Anyway, I need to get the practice in before we fight Azura… so I'll call Budgie and get you two settled, and I'll follow until you tell me we're there." With a piercing whistle, the demon bird flew up, nuzzling Foxglove.

"Budgie, just because I have wings now doesn't mean I'm mating material. You need to find yourself a lovely lady bird and settle down… until then, I need you to fly my sister and Hiei-san to a temple. He'll guide you, all right?" The bird cooed…. In as much as a growling chirp can be called a coo… and Foxglove attached the reins she had hidden on the roof to the bird's beak.

"All right, have you ever ridden a horse?" Foxglove asked. Hiei nodded, unsure. It had been a while, sure, but he was pretty sure he had at least once. Foxglove laughed quietly. "Good, because this is something like riding a horse… just flight. The reins work the same way… Here, let me get Solaris settled, then I'll get you settled." Foxglove did just that, instructing Hiei on how to get the bird to go and to land. It was awkward to stand in the box on the bird's back, but he managed it.

"Hup-hup." Hiei said hesitantly, just barely wobbling a little when the bird took off jerkily. Foxglove followed soon after, her black wings making smaller flapping sounds than Budgie… which stood to reason, since Budgie was at least three times the girl's size. Finally, Hiei directed the bird to land, just as Solaris started to wake up.

"Ugh… where am I? And why does my back feel so heavy?"

"Foxglove can explain it, I came in a bit late. All I saw was you going nuts and your wings bursting out of your back… had to be one of the bloodiest sights I've ever seen. I don't think the apartment roof will ever be the same again." Hiei sighed. "And as to where you are, we're continuing your training here at this temple, where we can get you used to your wings and you have more space to train. My best bet? Two months at least to get you trained up and balanced… and during all this we have to keep Azura from you." Foxglove touched down about then, already adjusting to the flight and landings.

"Sis? You're awake?"

"Yes, and I want an explanation for what the hell happened." Solaris said. Foxglove took about five minutes and explained the story to the vixen, helping her off Budgie and showing her some wing flexes she should do to stretch the muscles. Just before they reached the door of the temple, Hiei turned to the girls to whisper.

"Now, you two, my sister lives here, so we need to be kinda quiet coming in…"

"A little too late, Hiei-nii." The three turned to see a smallish girl with long seafoam hair, eyes a brilliant crimson like her brother's, and a small smile on her face. "I heard the wings rustle. So, how did you get hold of two angels?"

"We're not angels, miss…" Solaris said calmly.

"Yukina." The girl smiled. "Come on in, and Hiei-nii? You explain this."

"Uhm… Yukina-san? Do you have a phone I could use?" Solaris asked. "I need to call Kurama… he's got his cell on silent, but he checks the messages first thing every morning. I wanna ask him to get Jonouchi when he comes tomorrow. No one else feeds little Jou, and we left pretty fast… Jou would like it out here."

"Phone's in the main hall." Yukina smiled. Hiei explained the whole situation, finishing just as Solaris got back into the kitchen, wings crunched to her back to keep from knocking anything over. "So… you're training for a battle?"

"Uhm… yes." Solaris nodded shyly. Yukina smiled.

"Do your best. If you'll follow me, I'll show you your room."

"Thank you." Solaris smiled, following Yukina to a room. She was asleep again in no time at all.

* * *

And now you see why this story is rated M. That has to be one of the bloodiest scenes I've ever written, and I don't wanna pull a repeat. Seriously. Please review! 


	10. Part X: Preparation

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack.

Blood type: Tired. And educated. I figured out I make my coffee too strong.

Comments: Okay, I figured I'm going to try to finish posting this story this month- I want to work on something new, and since this is finished already I want to move on. I need a mild break from my black-winged version of Solaris. Also, I have art up for her, if you check out my deviant art account. It's set as my homepage, so feel free to look!

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part Ten: Preparation

* * *

"And slash!" Hiei drilled. Solaris was working hard to keep her balance… and this time, she failed. Her 'Oof!' resounded through the grove, and the 'flumf' of wings clapping shut together accompanied a sigh from Hiei. "All right, get back on your feet and try it again."

"Easy for you to say, you aren't working with massive ten-pound weights attached to your back!" Solaris glared from the ground. "Ten pound weights that like to move on their own sometimes."

"Fine. Ten minute break, then we come back and try it again. Fly, do what you do, just make sure to be back here in ten minutes." Hiei declared, and the sound of an angel taking off greeted his ears as he took a seat. With a sigh, he looked skyward. "Sometimes… I wonder if she really will be ready in seven more weeks."

Solaris wouldn't tell Hiei, but her favorite thing to do was to fly. Now that she could feel her own muscles working, she liked it a lot more than the enchantment Shiroi had cast upon her so she could move on her own. She coasted over the temple to see Yukina outside, Jounouchi running around her feet and occasionally yapping at a koi or something. Bringing the little dog out to the country had been a wonderful idea… and it seemed like Yukina really liked him too.

Kurama was working ahead; the next semester was his last at University, and he wanted to be prepared. He didn't tell the girls, but he also did it to keep his mind off what would happen if Solaris lost her battle against Azura. He looked up when he heard the familiar whoosh of wings gliding into the courtyard, and smiled. Solaris did a barrel roll as a salute, pulling up just in time to avoid a tree. Foxglove looked up from her own solitary drills with the fans she had begun to favor as her weapons, and rolled her eyes.

"Show off! Get back to training!" she yelled, ignoring Kurama's laughter. Solaris just laughed and did another barrel roll before coasting some more and returning to Hiei for training.

"Glad you decided to be early. Are you ready to try again?" he asked calmly.

"Yep!" she nodded. A few more tries, and she could execute the move almost perfectly. Hiei declared it 'fine' and they moved on to more difficult things, conquering a few difficult moves and perfecting the first one before lunch. Solaris was excited coming back, not even noticing her sister still continuing her drills, daggers ready for training after lunch. The training schedule for the two vixens was brutally difficult, requiring them to wake up and start training at 5:30 (definitely not Solaris's best time), finishing training at almost 11:30 (Not always Foxglove's best time). Solaris worked on swords almost exclusively, with the last third of her time devoted to fisticuffs and how she might be able to use her wings as weapons, while Foxglove divided hers pretty evenly between fans and daggers, with a little hand to hand thrown in for review or something.

Solaris moved on to Kurama, while Hiei watched the red head fight a bamboo post. With one sweep, she cut a large gash into the post, jumping away and smiling. "Good job." Hiei nodded. Foxglove smiled and turned, nerves showing in her eyes.

"Do you really think Solaris can shape up in seven weeks? She flew by here in a barrel roll… controlled this time at least."

"If she works hard… she can do anything." Hiei nodded. "Right now… I'm worried about her balance. She's got it perfect when it comes to flight… I'm worried about walking, running, fighting. You adjusted faster than she did for some reason."

"Yeah… I wonder if it's because dad rushed her powers and she thought she should have wings or something… her balance could have been subconsciously overbalanced since a certain age and she wouldn't have noticed it. How's she doing fighting?"

"Not bad. She fell a few times… but less than yesterday. Only twelve times today, and it was eighteen yesterday."

"Hm, that is good." Foxglove nodded as they headed for the kitchen. Lunch was simple… and Hiei got a training idea from it. After lunch, Hiei tied Solaris's wings at the joints and tips, and challenged her to run and get water from the spring near by without spilling any water or untying the bonds. Solaris set off, a little unhappy, and feeling overbalanced, the yoke over her shoulders holding buckets. Kurama sighed as he watched the girl stumble off.

"That was a little much, don't you think?" he asked. Hiei shrugged and went back to working with Foxglove. "Fine, I'll go." He set off running, ignoring Hiei's yell of 'she's got to do it on her own!' and Foxglove's unnerved 'Kurama!'. He found Solaris by the spring, drenched and angry. Large splashes of muddy water showed him why. He hid from her view, and watched her splash the water with one small hand in frustration.

"Damn it, why the hell can't he lighten up?! I'm training as hard as I can! I'm doing everything I can! Why won't Hiei just chill?!"

"He wants you to be prepared." Kurama said, coming out of hiding and crouching by her. "Hiei went and did some reading on Furies… all he found was Grecian mythology, but it was pretty frightening. And he thought… if the Furies of myth were even half as powerful as the Fury you spoke of, we were… how did Foxglove put it when she told me…"

"Screwed?" Solaris supplied. Kurama nodded; he'd remembered, but he had been keeping his mouth shut to see if Solaris could figure it out.

"The very term. So… drawing any conclusions?"

"Yeah… I guess I have really sucky balance with these wings now…" Solaris sighed. "I know I need to work on my balance before I go to Heaven to take Azura on… but what's the point of the water exercise? I can't take three steps with these wings unless they're partially flared out, so couldn't I just walk with them bound? Do I really need to weight train?"

"You should, but for once… I think Hiei's being too tough." Kurama said calmly. "So, tell you what, you wash the mud off your arms and hands, and we'll start you off simple. Just walking. Then we'll try weights."

"Okay." Solaris nodded. It was a little slower than she would have liked, but she knew she had to take this in baby steps. Two months… that was all the time she was willing to wait to take her revenge.

--

"So, how's Solaris doing?" Hiei asked. Kurama was working with her now, at least in the morning, which didn't hurt Hiei's feelings a bit. Foxglove was more of a morning vixen. She worked with more drive. And in the afternoons, Hiei noticed, Solaris was getting to where she could work a little more before falling down. The past three weeks had been good.

"She's getting better. We've moved on to running without use of her wings to balance her. It'll give her an edge, she'll be able to keep out of reach. And we're on small amounts of weight when she walks. I think she'll be able to go back to her old training regimen within the next two weeks… maybe even more of a load. And Foxglove?"

"She tried some move from a video game today to bust open a dummy." Hiei sighed. "I don't know what was scarier, her shouting the name of some attack from .hack or that it actually worked."

"If it works in real life situations, then we shouldn't question it. So… you kept the forest demons a secret?" Kurama asked conspiratorially.

"Of course. I guess you have?"

"Right on the money. So when should we take them out into it?"

"If you think Solaris is ready… two weeks." Hiei smiled a rare smile. Yukina came in, tea in hand and a little pout on her face.

"You hurt those two and I'll make sure you don't forget who was responsible. I don't want to lose the best kitchen hands I've ever had." Yukina declared.

"We won't!" both declared. Yukina nodded once, as if to say 'see that you don't', and left. They looked back to each other and nodded.

"Two weeks?" Kurama asked.

"If you think she's ready." Hiei said and took a drink of his tea, closing the subject.

--

"Hah!" Solaris gasped, hauling the yoke off her shoulders and setting the buckets on the porch by the kitchen. "Yukina? I brought some more water!"

"Thank you- what happened to your wings?!" Yukina asked as she saw the bandaged appendages. Solaris laughed it off and picked the buckets up, dumping them in a basin that could be used to water the inside plants. It was the only reason Solaris brought water from the spring up.

"It's to improve my balance. Hiei started this program about two weeks ago. He and Kurama figure if I can't use my wings, I can get my balance back. I can walk without falling now, at least." Solaris laughed happily. "And they figure I can use these babies as weapons, if I fly enough to build up muscle. That's why they have me flying an hour a day. Guess they don't know I fly at night too."

The front door slid open and two male voices called out for Yukina. "Oh! That's Yusuke-san and Kuwabara-san! In the kitchen!" she called out, and the two entered the kitchen.

"Yukina-chan, you look lovely as ever!" Kuwabara declared, then began proclaiming his admiration for the girl, who was blushing slightly. Solaris rolled her eyes.

"Tch. Man, are you a cheeseball or what?" she asked sarcastically. The two boys looked over at the angel, and silence filled the room. Finally, Kuwabara broke the silence.

"Oh my god! What the hell is that growth on your back?!" Solaris jumped up, glaring.

"They're called wings, dipshit! I've got them bound for training!"

"Oh, you're the angel Kurama and Hiei are working with." Yusuke nodded. Solaris nodded once and sat back down, calmer.

"Wow, there's a brain between the two of you. Impressive." She said. "But I'm not an angel. I'm a half-breed. Angel dad, demon mom. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I can unbind these things for the first time since yesterday morning." Solaris got to her feet and headed outside, pulling the wrappings off the black wings and flaring them out, smiling at the shocked yelp from Kuwabara.

"Whoa… they actually work?" Yusuke asked. Solaris just took off and hovered near the porch, not even seeing Kurama walk up behind her.

"You bet they do." She laughed with a low tone. Kurama walked up behind her and pulled her back by her wrist.

"Yusuke, you shouldn't ask an angel if her wings work. I've been training her, and I could tell you that." Solaris looked back and smiled, hugging him.

"Jealous?" Yusuke asked. Kurama rolled his eyes, not seeing the stricken look on Solaris's face.

"Not so much." Kurama said calmly, hugging Solaris back. She felt reassured by that, and smiled again. "After all, you've already got Keiko. Now, are you going to tell her why you're here, or are we waiting for Foxglove?"

"I'm already here, Kurama." Foxglove smiled as she touched down. "So, what's with these two?"

"We're here to give you two a test of your strengths." Yusuke said. "I'm going to guess everyone knows everyone, and get to the point."

"You two have seen that forest out behind the temple?" Kuwabara said, regaining his calm.

"Yeah. But we stayed out because the guys said to." Both twins replied in unison.

"Whoa, stereo… anyhow," Yusuke said, regaining his composure, "that's because there are some fairly powerful demons out there. Well, you've been training for what, a little over a month now? Kurama and Hiei think you two are ready to try that forest. Think of it as a real-life application of training. You'll start tomorrow, training is cancelled for the rest of the day. If you two can make it out of that forest in one piece by lunch tomorrow… you're ready to face the fury."

"Consider this challenge accepted." Solaris declared, and turned, flying off with a determined look on her face.

"Whoa, what's with her? A minute ago she was all happy." Kuwabara said in confusion. Kurama sighed as Foxglove rolled her eyes; the twins were going to kill the spirit-sword wielder.

"The fury killed our mother, and her escape almost got Solaris killed. We're half breeds, I'm sure she already told you. Well, Grays aren't well received in heaven, and it doesn't matter that dad's the angel of death. She was hated from day one because of what she is. So they pinned the fury's escape on her, and when she finally got to meet mom… the fury found a way to kill mom not even two hours after they met for the first time… Solaris vowed revenge for that. She's probably going to train more." Foxglove sighed. "In the meantime, let's get some lunch. I'm starved!"

--

"Its lunchtime… where are they?" Yusuke asked, leaning against the tree in the center of the clearing. Kuwabara even looked worried. Suddenly the brush rustled violently, and an auburn vixen came rolling out, sword drawn and ready against a higher-level bat ghoul. Her feet barely touched ground before she shot skyward again and slashed. The torso flew out in front of her sister, clocking another ghoul in the face and letting Foxglove get in a strike with her daggers. The legs landed in front of the two observers, and Solaris landed, eyes amber toned and glaring. She looked to the two boys, decapitated a final ghoul, and held it up by the hair.

"We've passed your stupid test. Can we take on Azura now? I have had enough demolishing these lame ass targets! I want to go after the real thing!" she decreed.

"Give it a couple of days for your injuries to recover… you're more than ready to take on Azura." Yusuke finally managed. Solaris slung blood off her blade and took off through the forest again, not getting harassed by anything this time. She'd more than proved herself a worthy adversary for the fury.

Yusuke and Foxglove were on the same train of thought; both wondered what Azura was plotting… what she'd do when Solaris came at her.

--

"Ah, my little gray… you're finally ready… come to me, angel of destruction!" she laughed maniacally, frightening the angel that had warned Solaris those six weeks before.

_It's too soon… please… I hope you two are ready… please be ready…_ he prayed. Azura already had most of heaven under her control, and was slaughtering angels where she could, when she could. Even Shiroi was hiding away from Azura, and praying that his daughters could handle this challenge.

Azura was a force not to be reckoned with, and a revenge driven vixen didn't seem much of a challenge to her.

* * *

TBC

* * *

Next chapter:

"_Azura, I've come to challenge you!"_

'_The clouds turned red with the mist of blood, and even those on earth could see the tinge of color…'_

'_Large eyes stared up as if dead…'_

"_SOLARIS!"_


	11. Part XI: Battle for Heaven and Hell I

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack. 6-16-07: Most of the next two chapters will be written to the album "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love" by My Chemical Romance.

Blood type: Tired. And educated. I figured out I make my coffee too strong.

Comments: First part of a major three part update. Yes, be happy that I seem to have remembered that, hey, I have a story on here that I kinda sorta need to actually finish. Unfortunately, this three-part update will finish Tears In Heaven. Yeah, 13 chapters. Believe me, it was intentional.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part Eleven: Battle For Heaven and Hell (Part I)

* * *

Solaris's wings beat the air as she rose up to the clouds with her sister. Kurama and Hiei had decided to see this through to the end, and along with Yusuke and Kuwabara, were traveling with the sisters to watch the final epic battle they'd have to fight for the safety of heaven and hell. As they broke through the last of the cloud cover, three members of the party had to bite their lower lips to keep from gasping at the horror around them. Buildings were ashen, or still burning, bodies lay out on the ground, eyes wide and dulled in death. Feathers scattered the ground, and Solaris landed gracefully in front of her sister.

"AZURA!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "COME OUT HERE AND FACE ME THIS INSTANT!" She looked around, sword at the ready. "I've come for my revenge! You killed my mother and had me framed, I will not leave here without making you pay!"

"Oh, but that just takes all the fun out of it…" Solaris looked to the top of one of the few intact buildings to see a woman- her red eyes glowed evilly, fangs showed between rich red lips with color bleeding to her chin. The vixens and onlookers realized with horror that this was blood, not lipstick. Long black hair hung to her knees, and black leathery wings curled protectively around a voluptuous body clothed in leather in tones of red and gray. Solaris was furious as she saw the smile on Azura's face. "I suppose you think you're going to be taking revenge for the destruction of your home and the death of your mother."

"I don't give a damn about this place, it's never cared for me, but I know people who like it, and I won't let you have it or the angels! And as for my mother, you just asked for it, you could have left Hikaru the hell out of it! Hikaru never did anything to you but give birth to me! PREPARE TO DIE!" Solaris declared, and rushed the demon. Azura merely threw her head back and laughed maniacally, dodging the vixen to lean over her and whisper into her ear.

"Oh, no, I didn't kill her for that. I should have thanked her for giving birth to two of the most powerful demons in creation! I killed her because she would have put you too close to the truth for my tastes!" Solaris whirled around, sword at Azura's throat.

"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked, furious. Azura flew back, twirling like a debutante at her ball.

"Oh, the truth of the gray. I suppose since you're going to be my weapon to conquer the world, I can tell you what the truth is… but that's just too mad scientist-esque." Another laugh and a casting open of her wings, lesser demons sprang up from nowhere, occupying Foxglove and the four boys.

"Vixen, don't you let her get to you!" Hiei yelled as he fought. "You trained for this moment, now fight!"

"But you guys!" Solaris began to protest.

"We'll be fine, now fight!" Kurama yelled.

"It's your moment, get your revenge, dammit!" Yusuke called out as he blasted several away. Solaris nodded and turned back to Azura, an occasional beat keeping her aloft.

"Now… what did you mean the truth of the gray?"

"Oh, just that you grays are supremely powerful… oh, and she wanted to warn you of the danger awaiting you…"

"And that would be?" Solaris asked, slashing at the demon.

"Me! Of course!" Azura dodged the sword again, laughing. "Do you really think that will hurt me?"

"It damn well should!" Solaris yelled, actually getting a cut in on Azura. The demon screeched as if she had been burned, which she sort of had. "I knew something had to give. Before I even got the sword, I stocked up on that ningen stuff… holy water. I didn't know if it'd work, but apparently it's like gasoline to pure demons!" Solaris laughed, and pulled a small vial from the medicine bag around her neck. Flames reflected prettily off the liquid in it… "More holy water, Azura. You want to try me now? You think I can't beat you? You stole my mother from me before I got to really meet her. Now I'm going to steal your chances of world domination from you!" With a laugh that sounded almost insane, Solaris flung the vial onto Azura, laughing harder at the shrieks of pain. "You want any more?" she asked, reaching into a hip pouch to pull out another larger bottle of the water, and puncturing the thin lid with a fang to use it as a spray bottle. "BURN!"

"You little… bitch!" the fury yelled, reaching out a blistered hand to grab at Solaris's wings. One feather pulled away, making Solaris stop the barrage with the holy water and shriek in pain. This gave Azura the time to get back on her feet and try to stop the burning. The holy water fell from her hands and rolled away, unnoticed by Azura as Solaris took off flying again, eyes going amber in pain. Azura beat her large wings hastily to try and cool them off enough to fly. "You think that your stupid holy water can stop me when I can just pull your wings off your back like you were a fly? You think you can beat me?!"

"I don't think I can! I know I can!" Solaris glared, leveling the sword at the demon. "I've trained for this day for months! I'm not going to lose to you, you murdering bitch!" The tiny emerald around her neck set up to glowing softly, startling Azura and the half-angel fighting her.

"What the hell is that?!"

"I dunno! Short of an emerald, but if you've been fucking spying on me, you should know that! Baka!" Solaris yelled, as the emerald glowed brighter, and she charged, getting another slash in across Azura's face.

"You get her, sis!" Foxglove called as she opened the fans, daggers sheathed for now. Steel ribs cut across demonic faces, blinding and distracting other demons as Foxglove took off to the skies above for a better view. Kurama was awed at the sight of the twin Grays fighting to avenge their mother and each other, and watched for just a moment before going back to his battle. The sun had just finished setting, and a full moon was rising, a bloody colored moon. Unknown to any of the fighters, the red mist of the blood shed by both parties had tinted the clouds a pale red, and it unnerved ningen on earth, though a few "rational thinkers" believed it was just sunset and atmospheric conditions making the clouds look bloody.

"Foxglove, you concentrate on your battles! Let Solaris fight her own!" Hiei instructed, and Foxglove obeyed. Azura, in the meantime had adjusted to the light from the emerald and drawn two scimitars of her own. Steel clashed against steel as Solaris blocked one with her sword and dodged the other, occasionally pressing a bare foot against the blade to push away, only cutting into her feet a few times.

"I knew you played dirty, but I wasn't sure how bad you were until now!" Solaris growled, flying higher into the sky and leaning backwards, closing her wings close to her to dive down speedily into the clouds before Azura could hit her or figure out what she was doing. The moisture contained in the clouds felt cool against the cuts Solaris had suffered at Azura's hands, and she used the cover to find a blind spot, striking Azura at it. The demon fell to the ground with a shocked look, wings splayed out as Solaris stared down haughtily. The lesser demons fell into dust, and the other four looked on, unmoving and stunned.

"Is she…" Foxglove asked.

"I don't know." Solaris admitted, but drew back a foot and kicked a slim leather covered side, relishing in the grunt that emitted from the body. "She damn well better hope she is."

"You better hope she is." Everyone turned to see Shiroi, holding a cherub with roan colored hair in one arm and a scythe in the other. "Solaris, Foxglove… meet Hikaru. Your mother's reincarnation."

"Wow… you're not such a bastard." Foxglove replied.

"Girls… I loved your mother very deeply… and Solaris, I'm proud of you, and honored that you named your sword for your mother… but I'm afraid she's not dead… I can still feel a miasma of energy from her. Please, do me a favor. You've struck a killing blow with Hikaru, but use the scythe to kill her. It'll ensure that her spirit is gone forever into the depths of hell. That's why I only use the scythe in rare occasions, when someone's spirit overstays its welcome on earth. The scythe judges and sends to heaven or hell."

"You better be honest." Solaris said, handing the black-sheathed sword to the tiny cherub. "You take care of my sword for me, will you, Hikaru?" she smiled, and planted a small kiss onto the roan-haired head, earning a giggle as the cherub clutched the sword. "She may not remember me but she's still my mother… I still trust her more than you, Shiroi." Solaris said coldly, but accepted the scythe.

Unnoticed, a clawed hand crept over to Solaris, and as the coiled wings draped the ground, the hand latched on and pulled, hard, causing Solaris to shriek like a stricken child. Azura's red eyes glowed brightly and she smiled, coughing up a mat of blood.

"Now… you didn't think I was going to be defeated so easily… did you, my angel of destruction?" she asked, standing up and tugging the wing out with her, taking a few more feathers.

* * *

TBC


	12. Part XII: Battle for Heaven and Hell II

Title: Tears in Heaven

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack. 6-16-07: Most of the next two chapters will be written to the album "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love" by My Chemical Romance.

Blood type: Tired. And educated. I figured out I make my coffee too strong.

Comments: Second part of a massive three-part update that will, unfortunately, end Tears In Heaven. Yeah, this fic is over soon. Weep, damn you! Nah, not so much. This ends out the battle, please enjoy, and remember- if this sucks ass, I don't tend to write fight scenes.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part Twelve: Battle For Heaven and Hell (Part II)

* * *

"Now… you didn't think I was going to be defeated so easily… did you, my angel of destruction?" she asked, standing up and tugging the wing out with her, taking a few more feathers. Her other hand reached out and slashed the sensitive area of the back, around the base of Solaris's wings, and she laughed as the angel's eyes went amber and her shriek grew higher.

"Let her go, Azura! She'll be of no help if you kill her!" the angel yelled as he came out of hiding. Azura scowled and slapped him backwards.

"Shut up, you traitor! Tonio, you don't think I didn't know you warned her companions in her form?! I'm no fool! You are her first target! Solaris… my angel of destruction… kill him!" Azura demanded. Solaris turned a sad look to Tonio, blood tears falling from her eyes as she soared high into the air, her shriek ceased. With no warning, she dove, the butt of the scythe aimed at Tonio's heart. There was a sick thud as it connected, and Azura's laughter rang through the night.

_I'm so sorry, Tonio… I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry…_ Solaris's voice projected to Tonio, unspoken. The dying angel coughed once and smiled.

"I understand… commands must be obeyed if you're a gray… otherwise the pain will kill you… am I right?" More tears of blood fell to the ground, and he nodded. "That's what my research told me… someday, you should look it up… Little angel of music…"

"He always called her that…" Shiroi said in stunned shock. First he found that his daughter's favored (re: only one she never tried to kill in conscious mind) babysitter had betrayed them by releasing the Fury, now he found that he had tried to help, and now, the angel lay dying… never to return to Heaven as an angel… unless…

"Solaris used the butt of the scythe, didn't she?" Shiroi asked Kurama, who nodded. Shiroi seemed relieved then, for a split second as Solaris rose back into the sky, a silhouette against the blood moon shining in the sky. And as the angel, cherub, half-angel, and four men stared at the sight of the almost-cruel look on Solaris's flame lit face, a feeling of dread rushed through them.

Solaris didn't seem like she was in her right mind anymore, like the pain had driven her insane, and she was willing to listen to Azura if it would just make the pain stop. And the Fury just stood there, laughing as she watched her 'angel of destruction' hold her place in front of the moon, a furious insane avenger.

"And that was just the first! Soon, I will rule heaven and hell, and earth will be my hunting grounds! With my little Angel of Destruction at my bidding, I'll rule all!" she laughed maniacally. Foxglove's eyes were wide with horror as she noticed the blood dripping from her sister's various cuts in her feet and arms, and the blood staining the fox tail's crème-colored tip red as it dripped from the deep slashes in her back.

"She's gonna bleed to death… it's dripping down her back, her hair must be holding a lot of that too…"

"Quiet!" Azura commanded. "My angel of destruction… KILL! Kill those that hurt you! Kill the ones that made you cry! KILL!" she shrieked with laughter, never noticing as Solaris took off towards her, whipping her hair around. The others could see a spray of blood coming from the ends of her hair as she lowered the scythe at Azura. Foxglove looked around and found the bottle of holy water, and rushed forwards, flying over patches of cloud-ground that were missing.

"Solaris! Catch!" she yelled, throwing the bottle to her sister, who barely had to put out a hand to catch the water. With eyes clouded and amber, she threw the remainder of the water that had trickled out slowly at Azura's eyes, hitting right on the mark and blinding the Fury.

"WHAT?!" she shrieked in horror and confusion, before the blunt end of the scythe blade plowed into her stomach. Solaris's face was blank, except for hatred shining out of amber toned eyes.

"You're the only one here who's ever really hurt me. You're the only one here who's ever really made me cry. You killed my mother, that hurt me more than endless centuries of angelic torture ever could. You tried to cut my wings off my back… you made me kill Tonio. He's the only angel I've ever been able to even halfway stand. Now tell me one good reason why you shouldn't die?"

"I-I-I can give you power! More power than you've ever imagined!" Azura tried, paralyzed with fear. She'd never heard of Grays turning against the commands of those who had them under their control… ever. But none had the most powerful gray ever born in their power. And Azura was coming to realize that maybe she never had either, aside from the few minutes she had ordered her to kill Tonio.

"I don't need your excuse for power! What you think of as power is merely fear! And do you want to know what they feared about you?" Solaris asked, driving the blade harder into Azura's stomach as she leaned forward. "A legend, a myth, a fucking story told to frighten children into behaving! And do you want to know what I did when I heard those stories?" Solaris moved the blade to the side, pressing the point into Azura's side. "I. Laughed.

"Because I knew no-one was powerful enough to do all the things they said a fury could do. Sure, you can tear down buildings, you're powerful enough that you have to be held in a special cell, all that happy shit… but I knew you couldn't do it alone. I looked over every tale of Furies and I saw they all had one thing in common: They had a Gray under their control.

"So I figured it out. It was the Gray that was the driving force behind the Fury, not the other way around. The Grays that had been controlled by Furies were misled, thinking that the pain the Fury put them through could be numbed if they followed every instruction given by the Fury to the letter. So I did. I killed Tonio, yes. But I killed him with the end of the scythe. The un-enchanted end that wouldn't judge. Tonio will still be an angel when he's reborn, because he was misled too… just like you tried to do to me." Solaris straightened up and raised the scythe over her head.

"I know if I listen to you, that I'll never recover from the pain in my heart. I'll be following not only my mother's murderer, but the murderer of thousands of others whose only sin was to be born at the wrong time. Physical pain only makes a good controller for a short time. Eventually the load will be too great, and I'll die. Then you'll have no power over anyone. But I will have died responsible for the deaths of uncounted masses. I'd rather only have two deaths on my hands: Tonio's and yours!" And with that, she brought the scythe down into Azura's chest, pulling as she shouted over the Fury's shrieks of pain.

"See you in Hell!" With one final shriek, a dark energy rose up from Azura's body, and shot away into the horizon, vanishing in a small flash of light. Solaris pulled another vial of holy water from her medicine bag, and broke this container on the dead body. As the corpse went up in flames, Solaris leaned heavily against her father's scythe, breathing ragged as the blood steady flowed down her back, only beginning to clot now. The others rushed over to her.

"Is it over?" she asked, staring at the burning body. "Is she gone for good?"

"Yes, musume. She's gone to hell, forever." Shiroi nodded. "You stopped the Fury, and saved Heaven. And Tonio… he will be reborn."

"Good. I knew how your scythe worked. I didn't want him to die forever just because he made one little mistake and was misled by that Fury." Solaris was hoisted to her feet by Kurama, and she handed the scythe back to Shiroi. "Trade you. Your scythe for my sword." Hikaru handed the sword back to Solaris, and Shiroi took his scythe.

"So what happens now?" Kuwabara asked, the first thing he'd said the whole time they'd been in Heaven.

"Simple. We rebuild." Shiroi said calmly. "This has only happened a few times before, but all the angels put together could usually beat the Fury. This one snuck up on us. But we'll do what we always do. Rebuild. Cope. Learn."

"Good. Let this be the first lesson. Grays are not all going to kill you. And this should be the second: all that makes the Furies a threat is pain. Make sure that the cherubs understand that even if they obey someone causing them pain, it won't stop it. Maybe that should keep something of this magnitude from happening again." And with that, Solaris passed out. She'd fought hard to save the only home she'd really known.

"Where will you go from here?" Hikaru asked.

"We'll probably stay at the temple. I don't want to go back to Makai. And I'm willing to bet Sis would rather stay with Kurama… so the temple's the only place we can go, especially with these wings… that is, if you'll have us?" Foxglove asked Hiei.

"You're more than welcome." Hiei said calmly. Yusuke understood it, and stomped on Kuwabara's foot to keep him quiet. This, of course, escalated into another argument… until a sword was leveled at the two of them and they saw a very pissed off vixen glaring over Kurama's shoulder.

"Shut up you two. Or do I have to have four deaths on my hands?" With that, she withdrew the sword, kissed Kurama on the cheek, and promptly went back to sleep.

"Well… first things first, you need to tend your wounds. Then you can go home." Shiroi said calmly. "Foxglove, daughter… I'll teach you how to withdraw your wings if you promise to teach your sister."

"I would even if you told me not to." Foxglove grinned.

--

"Solaris? Wake up, Solaris…" The vixen sat up slowly, feeling bandages wrapped all around her torso and arms. She looked over at the red-headed man by her blearily.

"Kurama?" she asked. "Where are we?"

"Home, Solaris. You're home." She grimaced and flopped back, causing him no end of amusement. "Not Heaven, not Hell. The temple… where we're going to live." She looked at him sideways.

"We? As in Foxglove and me?"

"As in you, me, Foxglove, Hiei and Yukina. Sure, I still have classes, but I know you like to fly. You can't do that in Tokyo. So I've decided I'm going to only live in Tokyo during the days I have classes. Every Friday night I'm going to come here and stay with you. Hiei's already cancelled his lease on his apartment, he and Foxglove are moving the stuff out now."

"How long have I been out?" Solaris asked. Kurama had to think a moment.

"Three days. But your injuries were severe. Oh, and Foxglove told me to teach you how to withdraw your wings." He smiled and helped her sit up again. "Now, just imagine yourself without wings again. They should revert to the birthmarks. And if you want them again, just imagine yourself with them. It shouldn't hurt for them to come out anymore." He watched as the wings retreated into Solaris's back, but she stopped them just as they became cute, manga-sized wings.

"I'm used to them being there. I don't want them to go away completely." As she shrugged, she sighed and shook her head, and withdrew them totally. "Itchy."

"I imagine so. Come on, let's go for a walk." He smiled, and helped her up, walking with her around the courtyard as he filled her in on what all had happened after her passing out.

Yukina watched the two laughing, walking like old friends, and smiled. She knew the two had some sort of connection, a strange one. Or maybe… not so strange. After all, love crossed all boundaries, human, demon, angel, some odd mix of them…

"Welcome home." she smiled to no one, saying the words no one had said yet.


	13. Part XIII: And after the Battle

Title: Tears in Heaven

Title: Tears in Heaven

Summary: Another YYH fic? Le gasp, Solaris! Anyway, AU fic, totally fucked up if you ask me, but here goes: Kurama is on his way home when he finds a little demon girl running from something. Confused, he offers her safe haven, and finds that she's on the run from heaven. An angel-demon cross? What has been going on? And why does she intrigue him so?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen.

BGM: Meteora by Linkin Park. Should be the soundtrack for the whole damn story. Provided it doesn't exceed 13 chapters. 1-8-07: Added Evanescence- Fallen to the soundtrack. 6-16-07: Most of the next two chapters will be written to the album "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love" by My Chemical Romance.

Blood type: Tired. And educated. I figured out I make my coffee too strong.

Comments: Final part of a massive three-part update. This finishes Tears in Heaven... and quite possibly my time in the YYH fanfiction ring. Yeah, I'm thinking with as few reviews as I get for these stories, I may post one more one-shot I have that I hope everyone will enjoy, and then stick to Kyo Kara Maoh and Kingdom Hearts... maybe dabble in FFVII. I dunno. Anyhow, please enjoy the final chapter of Tears In Heaven, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Disclaimer: Yeah. University student owns YYH? Please. I wish.

* * *

Part Thirteen: And after the battle…

* * *

"Sora!" The auburn vixen looked up, and reached out to the tiny blond cherub rushing at her. Tonio launched himself into her arms, giggling madly to his 'Sora', the only way he could say Solaris's name. He was young yet, he had time.

"Tonio, aren't you supposed to be in lessons?" she asked, giggling with him. She knew how it was to ditch lessons; you didn't have to listen to a bunch of bull. He just reached up and wrapped chubby arms around her neck.

"Fly me, Sora!" he begged, and Solaris laughed happily. Black wings unfurled from the woman's back, and she took off, holding tight to the cherub. Angels looked up from whatever they were doing, and sighed indulgently. Saving Heaven, Hell and the lands inbetween hadn't changed the hanten's impulsive, rebellious nature, and time wouldn't dull it either. All that had changed in the scant three years that had passed was the respect that she received as a savior. Solaris soared right over Shiroi's head as he taught Hikaru how to wield a small dagger, and he looked up to his daughter.

"SOLARIS! AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING?!" he yelled. The vixen was an angel of music, a saver of souls in a sense. She spent most of her time on earth or wandering the heavens, finding souls that had lost their way and gathering them to her to be absolved and sent wherever they needed to go. To do so, she sang. It was her thing. Solaris laughed that bell-like laugh and landed near her father.

"Nothing to do on earth today. I thought I'd come visit you and mom, but if you don't want me to…"

"Nuuu, Sora! Don't go!" Tonio cried, and Hikaru grabbed onto a black-fabric covered leg. Solaris had kept her battle outfit Foxglove had made for her and used it to work in. Little Hikaru shot a glare at Shiroi.

"Don't you make Solaris leave! She came to visit!" Shiroi sighed; Hikaru was very convincing.

"Fine then." He sighed, and sat back down, motioning for his daughter to sit too. "So, what's going on down in the human world?"

"Well… I heard that a war maybe coming soon, figured that Shinigami-sama would want to be in the know. And it's gonna be a big one too, if the reporters aren't blowing things out of proportion again, so I'm just waiting until we have to start clocking in overtime."

"Yeah, good point." Shiroi nodded.

--

"Mama, Foxglove-san's here again!" a young demon child yelled to his mother. The older woman came out just in time to see a young vixen swoop overhead, black wings flared, azure blue dress fluttering over black leggings. Tiny black slipper-covered feet seemed to dance as she turned, smiling as she did a barrel roll to entertain the two before flying off.

While Solaris had accepted her father's offer on behalf of heaven to be an angel of rescue/music, Foxglove had declined, saying she was more comfortable in hell than heaven, and rightly so. After all, she had terrorized a lot of angels in looking for her sister; they didn't have a good opinion of her. It was her way of giving back to them some shred of honor. Besides, the girl didn't want to be mentioned in history any more than she already was going to be.

So she spent her days helping around the temple, sometimes going home to help those who had helped her, or going to the bazaars and markets to pick up items that were rare or needed cheap. She felt that she had spoiled Yukina and Solaris from buying human-made skillets ever again; her last gift to the two sous-chef-wanna-be's had been two demon-forged iron skillets. Tough as hell and guaranteed to last this lifetime and the next. Fairly light too. Today was mostly a pleasure trip; earth was in the declining portion of autumn, it was getting too cold to fly much there. Here was much nicer. But she sighed and decided to head back to the temple; maybe Hiei would be home from the small dojo he ran by now!

--

"Kurama!" The red-headed boy looked up to see an auburn vixen coming at him fast on wing. He caught Solaris, who retracted her wings and smiled happily. "Sorry, couldn't wait until you got up the path! How was work?" she asked excitedly.

After Kurama had graduated college (in the top three of his graduating class, despite distractions in the last year), companies were trying to recruit him with all sorts of options: corner office in a new office in Nagasaki, penthouse condominium in a sparkly new building in Tokyo, mucho vacation time in Osaka… the list went on and on. In the end, Kurama decided that he was going to take up the offer of a smaller company that would let him work from home, only having to report in one day a week to the office. It was a good job, the advertising firm was incredibly well-paid, and he got to spend a lot of time with Solaris.

It was the best deal ever. And Solaris loved her job as an angel of music. It meant she got to do her favorite thing every day, pretty much: sing and dance. And out at the temple, no one could see her unless she wanted to be seen. It was incredible to watch her dance sometimes; she'd get so into a tune she'd let her wings come out, just enough to be manga-sized and cute, and use the enchantment placed on her so long ago by Shiroi to lift herself into the air. And now she was buzzing with excitement.

"It was all right. They loved the idea." Kurama smiled. His last project had been to think up a gimmick for a new makeup line 'Divine Cosmetics'. Solaris had been staring over his shoulder and suggested getting some pop star to sing the jingle dressed in a hot angel outfit. It was so obvious he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it. A few tweaks to the idea (Solaris had drawn the outfit, but it had been a little too short, so he'd lengthened it a little, and the tune to the jingle had to be written down by Solaris after Kurama had told her the lyrics) and he'd presented it that day. "They hardly believed me when I told them I'd had you draw the outfit."

"Huh. Imagine that." She said, shivering a little. Kurama laughed and pulled her into the folds of his coat.

"So I take it you had to go to heaven today?" Solaris shook her head.

"Didn't have to so much as wanted to. I wanted to visit the cherubs… they say that a new batch is going to need to be hatched this spring, and guess who gets to sing them out?"

"You?"

"Yep! Apparently it's my duty as an angel of music. Doesn't hurt my feelings a bit, I like the cherubs. It was always after the bigot angels got hold of them I didn't like them so much anymore." Solaris snuggled deeper into the coat. "But now they like me just fine."

"You saved their collective ass, why wouldn't they?" The two turned to see Yusuke getting pummeled by Keiko, and Kuwabara laughing. "I get it, sorry!"

"Good. See that you do." Keiko nodded. "We came to visit… chilly?" she asked, smiling. Solaris blushed lightly, and Kurama laughed. Another typical weekend at the temple…

--

"Hiei, welcome home." Foxglove smiled as Hiei walked up the steps to the temple. She was sitting on a chair, snapping peas into a bowl as Solaris peeled one last potato. The elder twin got to her feet, took the potatoes inside, and smiled.

"Take those peelings down to the compost for me later, will ya, sis?" she said, leaving them alone. Foxglove sighed and smiled; it was worth a trip to the smelly compost heap to talk to Hiei alone like this.

"Thanks." He sighed, sitting down by her.

"Tough day?"

"You bet. One of the students decided he wanted to get into a judo match with another, got beaten, then got irate that I suspended him for a week. He doesn't get that I've told them all time and again not to fight in the dojo unless it's a sanctioned match." Hiei groaned again. "And another took a fall hard and broke her ankle. Her parents threatened to sue until Izumi… angel that she is… reminded them of the waiver they signed at the beginning of the year."

Before finding out more, Izumi's mere mention stirred up sparks of jealousy in Foxglove. After she'd met the woman, and found out that she was happily attached to a nice guy in Tokyo, she could acknowledge Izumi's name with a smile. She wasn't a threat to Foxglove's love for Hiei. Even Hiei understood that. "Izumi's a lifesaver." Foxglove acknowledged.

"That she is. So, I heard the detective and the baka?"

"And Keiko. They came to visit." Foxglove smiled. "So Yukina and Solaris are making Nabe, I think… I never did really catch why they needed potatoes and peas. Gives me something to do, I suppose."

"Anything else in the news about that potential war?" Hiei asked. Foxglove's ears twitched.

"Nothing of substance. Just rumors that it's been declared and they're each waiting for the first side to make a shot before retaliating." She snapped the last pea into the bowl. "It's a cold war so far, but Solaris is gearing up for overtime. She's finishing up her winter outfit's repairs tonight."

"Oh." Hiei said, then picked up the bucket of potato peels. Crimson eyes cut Foxglove a glance as she protested. "I've got it. You get those peas in. I'm hungry and I think I just heard a three way stomach growl: the vixen, the detective, and the baka are starving."

"Right." Foxglove laughed and did as she was bid.

--

Shiroi wandered the temple grounds with Hikaru late that night, looking in on each room. He passed right by Yukina, Kuwabara, and Yusuke and Keiko's rooms, finding his daughters and the ones they loved. Solaris was sleeping right by Kurama, peaceful with her head resting on his arm. Her wings were retracted into the birthmark form and she turned over away from the draft of the door opening, now resting her head on Kurama's shoulder. As if instinctually, the boy pulled her closer with one arm and smiled, never waking up. He nodded with Hikaru and moved on to Foxglove.

This scene was sweet in its own way, but not too much so. While the two slept on different futons, the space between them was pretty minimal. Still, all that touched were their hands; hers palm up on the floor and his covering hers. Shiroi nodded again as Hikaru pouted and frowned, then fluttered down to pull their futons closer. As soon as she had finished, she nodded, and went back to Shiroi. The two left after that.

"What if they hadn't wanted that?" Shiroi asked.

"Too bad. They're into each other, they need it." Hikaru declared, then looked back fondly to the temple. "I'm glad they've finally found happiness."

"I am too." Shiroi said, cuddling his cherub-incarnated wife closer. "I am too."

* * *

Fin.

* * *

Okay, so here's the deal: Tears is over, yes, but I have a sequel. Review, and tell me if you want to read it.

Also, I realize that this fic was likely... well, confusing. So I'm willing to answer questions if you're willing to ask them, and in character too. -glutton for punishment, much?- So here's the deal: send a review (anonymous reviews are fine too, but I really like having names!) with your question and who you're asking, and I'll try to answer it. The answers will be posted in a chapter after this, so please look for it.


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